Am I Still Alone?
by Magical Pirate Ninja
Summary: What if Sakura wasn't on Team 7? Instead it's Hitori Anaka who is an orphan similar to Naruto and Sasuke. Something about her parent's death causes her to resent the hokage. How will the orphans of team seven fit together? Like a puzzle? Or will they all fall apart?
1. Team 7 Formed!

**A/N: Okay so this is my second fanfiction, and I think that Sharingan Awakened will still be my priority. Still, writing this one in the meantime will help me when I get writer's block so, yeah :) Anyway, I'm not quite sure how much this will follow canon, but I do know that it will definitely end up AU.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

It was finally orientation day, so I grabbed an banana off the counter before grabbing my gear. I stopped for a second to kiss my pointer and middle finger before pressing them to a picture of my mother, father, and brother and, finally, rushed out the door. Along the way Ino and Sakura rushed past pushed so close together I'm surprised neither one fell down. Of course my class was always rowdy so when I entered my classroom I was greeted with a large argument going on between most of the girls about who would get to sit next to Sasuke. Rather than get caught up with the meaningless fight, I took a seat a couple seats from Shikamaru.

Eventually, after Naruto was thoroughly beaten for kissing Sasuke, Iruka sensei walked in and calmed the classroom down. He then proceeded to give us an immensely boring speech about how 'our journey hasn't ended' bla bla bla. The only thing that really caught my attention was the fact that we were on three man squads. Ino, who sat between Shikarmaru and I, began talking to Sakura about who would get on Sasuke's team. I didn't care what team I was on as long as they didn't get in my way. In fact I was hoping that whoever I got on a team with would be able to help me improve. I knew I wasn't best in the class, but I was going to be sure to change that.

Iruka sensei began calling out the teams, "Squad 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Hitori Anaka, and Sasuke Uchiha." I noticed a lot of glares directed toward me after hearing I was on the same team as Sasuke. Two other teams were announced before Iruka sensei told us we were dismissed for lunch and that when we came back we would meet our new senseis.

After a quiet lunch I went back into a classroom only to watch every team but mine leave with their senseis. Meanwhile Sasuke, Naruto, and I waited in an empty classroom for a teacher who was more than an hour late. Naruto, still being his idiot self after he inexplicably passed, decided to pass the time by wedging an eraser in the door to fall on our sensei. "Seriously?" I asked him.

He looked at me, "All the other teams already met their senseis and took off on some adventure, this is what he gets for being late!"

Sasuke looked at him, "Our teacher is a jounin, do you really think he'll fall for that?"

"Whatever," was Naruto's only reply as he looked anxiously at the door. It didn't take longer than a few seconds before a silver-haired masked man opened the door and allowed the eraser to drop on his head.

Naruto immediately burst into fits of laughter while Sasuke and I just stared at our new sensei. The silver-haired masked man took the eraser in his hand and looked like he was examining it before he turned and looked us to speak, "How can I say this? My first impression of this group is: you're all idiots." I glared at him while he motioned for us to follow him up to the roof. Once there he spoke again, "Alright, why don't you introduce yourselves? One at a time."

"What are we supposed to say?" Naruto asked after a second of silence.

"Things you like, things you hate, dreams for the future, hobbies. Things like that." Our sensei replied with a bored tone.

"You go first, you know, so we can see how it's supposed to go." Naruto suggested.

He gave an exasperated sigh before, just barely, complying. "Me? I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate? I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future… never really thought about it. As for my hobbies, I have lots of hobbies… Now it's your turn smart guy. Introduce yourself."

"Believe it! I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka Sensei got me at the Ichiraku noodle shop! But I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the ramen cup. My hobby is eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them. And my future dream is: to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody, somebody important."

"Why would you want to be Hokage? Is your role model really some old guy who can't do much besides sit there?"

Naruto glared at me, "The Hokage are the strongest ninja in the village, and I'm gonna surpass them all!"

"Wouldn't take much." I muttered softly before Kakashi spoke up.

"Why don't you introduce yourself then?"

"Fine, I'm Hitori Anaka. I like family and dislike those who make promises they can't keep. I don't have a hobby besides training, and the only thing you need to know about my dream is that I will be a hunter."

If Kakashi thought anything of what I said he didn't show it through his one visible eye as he moved on to Sasuke, "Alright, your turn."

Sasuke kept his voice stoic as he spoke, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I _will _make a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and _destroy _a certain someone."

"Kakashi was silent for one second before speaking, "Well now that we are all introduced, we will have our first mission tomorrow."

"Ooooh, a mission. What kind is it?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Something all four of us are going to do together," Kakashi told us almost as if he was avoiding answering the question.

Of course Naruto took the bait, "What what what whaaat!?"

"A survival exercise."

"Survival exercise?" Naruto questioned.

"What happened to Iruka sensei's big speech about how we are _real _ninjas now?" I asked. "aren't missions what the academy trained us for?"

"This isn't like your previous training." Kakashi told us cryptically

"So, what's it like then?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi began chuckling in an eery manner, "Well, if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it." He continued his eerie chuckling. When we looked at him with questions in our gaze he finally answered, "Of the twenty eight graduates who just came here only nine will actually be accepted as genin. The other eighteen will weeded out and sent back to the academy. In other words, this is a make it or break it pass-fail test, and the chance that you'll fail is at least 66%" Looking at our shocked faces he concluded, "See? Didn't I tell you, you weren't going to like it?"

"But we worked hard to get here!" Naruto protested, "what was that graduation test for then?"

"Oh that was just to see who _might _become genin." Kakashi answered, "that's how it is. I decide whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated ground by five a.m. and bring your ninja gear."

_I will definitely pass this test,_ I thought to myself, _if__ I don't everything I worked for will be for nothing._

While we were all lost in our thoughts Kakashi spoke up again, "That's it, you're dismissed. Oh, tomorrow you better skip breakfast, or else… you'll puke."

* * *

/(^o^)/ NARUTO \(^o^)\

* * *

The next morning I trudged to the training ground with a grumbling stomach. Sasuke and Naruto walked over at the same time I did, and frankly I was a bit annoyed at how Sasuke didn't seem tired at all. We waited for hours, it was probably eight a.m. before Kakashi showed up and casually spoke, "Morning everyone, ready for your first day?"

"You're late!" Naruto yelled at the silver-haired jounin.

"Well a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way." Kakashi said not even trying to make it sound believable. Naruto growled but said nothing. "Well," Kakashi cleared his throat, "let's get started." He set a clock on a post a clicked the button, "Here we go. It's set for noon." Two bells jingled as he pulled them out. "Your assignment is very simple; you just have to take these bells from me. That's all there is to it." He jingled the bells again, "If you can't get them by noon you go without lunch. You'll be tied to those posts, and you'll watch as I eat my lunch in front of you." Everyone's stomach, but Kakashi's, growled as we realized why he told us not to eat breakfast.

"Sensei, why are there only two bells if there is three of us?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

He gave what I can only describe as a smile as he answered, "Well that way at least one of you gets tied to a post and sent back to the academy. Then again, all three of you could fail and all of you will be tied to a post. You can use any weapons including shuriken; if you're not prepared to kill me, you won't be able to take the bells."

Naruto laughed, "This'll be easy! You couldn't even dodge that eraser."

"Class clowns are usually the weakest links. You can safely ignore them. Lowest scores. Losers." our sensei stated simply. Naruto growled at him again. "When I say start you can begin." Naruto continued growling, and without even waiting for Kakashi-sensei to say start he rushed toward him with a kunai. Faster than any of us could see the jounin spun Naruto around and twisted his arm so that the kunai he held faced the back of his head. "Don't be in such a hurry." Kakashi sensei chastised him. "I didn't say start yet." He finally let go of Naruto. "But you came at me with the full intention of destroying me, so how can I say this… I'm actually starting to like you guys." He paused for a fraction of a second, "Get ready. And… START!"

I rushed into the trees behind Kakashi sensei where I could easily see him, but he couldn't see me. I watched as Naruto made a spectacle of himself being beaten by a masked man reading a book. After watching Naruto get thrown into a lake I realized the only information I was going to get out of the fight is how good Kakashi was at taijutsu. I decided to go further into the forest until I found a second clearing. I made a walk-around to check the place out before setting up traps throughout the clearing. As soon I was done I went back to the clearing where Kakashi and Naruto were brawling earlier only to find it empty other than Naruto hanging from a tree. I deemed it best to leave him there and moved stealthily through the forest in hopes of finding the one-eyed jounin.

Before I found him sensei found me instead. As I turned around ready to face him he made a hand-sign and seemed to disappear behind a curtain of leaves. When the leaves disappeared I saw my brother crouching before me with kunai and shuriken lodged almost everywhere in his body. I steeled my heart as he begged for help and put my hand in the same sign as Kakashi did and released the gen-jutsu. After seeing that I knew I had to get the bells… there was no way I was going to let anyone use my memories of my family against me.

By the time I found him I was just in time to see Sasuke graze a bell. As Kakashi slid back I took my opportunity to throw myself behind him and kick him into the air. Then I took a running jump and using a tree branch to propel me I got above him and clenched my hands together to throw him back down. It might have been an excellent maneuver if his body hadn't shattered into logs when it reached the ground. I did my best landing, and immediately looked around for any sign of the jounin. I saw Sasuke do the same thing, but neither of us saw the silver-haired man. The next thing I knew I was pulled underground by a gloved hand. Sasuke immediately jumped to the trees to avoid having the same thing happen to him, and as soon as he had a clear shot I saw his hands morph into several hand-signs. I didn't follow them very well, but I caught that the last one was tiger and right as he released the jutsu my mind made the connection that it was for a fire jutsu.

Either Sasuke had great control over the jutsu, or I was extremely lucky not to get burnt with how close the fire got to my skin. It didn't really matter because Kakashi was out of sight when the flame dissipated. Determined to be useful I built up chakra in my hands and did my best to dig myself out of the hole. When our sensei didn't come back into view for a little while Sasuke ran off leaving me stuck in the hole glaring daggers at his back.

* * *

/(^o^)/ NARUTO \(^o^)\

* * *

By the time I got out of there the lunch bell had rang and grudgingly dragged my feet toward the poles where we began. Naruto was the only one who got tied to a pole because he had apparently tried to steal the food earlier. All of stomachs growled so Kakashi spoke up, "Uh oh, stomachs growling, that's too bad." Kakashi said while we all sat in front of him, "Oh, by the way, about this exercise. Well, I've decided I'm not sending any of you back to the academy."

"Th-that means all three of us!" Naruto was much too excited to finish what he was saying.

The jounin closed his eye and looked like he was smiling, "Yes, all three of you… Are being dropped from the program… permanently!" Naruto's cheering instantly ceased and his face morphed to show his surprise.

"Are you kidding!?" I screamed at him, "There is no way I'm going back after all this hard work!" At the same time Naruto was kicking from his post and protesting similar things.

"Drop us from the program!? That means we can never be ninja! You said if we couldn't get the bells we'd be sent back to the academy! You can't just change your mind and kick us out, why would you do that!?"

"Because you don't think like ninja, you think like little kids, like brats." Kakashi informed us sternly. All of us were irritated, but Sasuke was the one to make a move as he rushed forward to attack Kakashi. The jounin was quickly on top of him with his foot on his head and his arm twisted behind his back. "You think it's all about you." The ninja continued his speech from where he left off. "You don't know what it means to be a ninja. You think it's a game, huh? Why do you think we put you on squads? Did you consider that question for one moment?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, too annoyed with the man to actually think about what he was asking.

"I mean you never figured out what this test was about, not even close." Kakashi informed us.

"What it's about?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, that's what determines whether you pass or fail." Kakashi was staring at us as if daring us to come up with the answer.

"Then tell us!" I practically ordered the silver-headed man who was still on top of Sasuke.

Kakashi scoffed, "use your head. Three people on a squad why do you think we would do that?"

Naruto screamed, "why are supposed to know why you picked three people? We didn't make the rules!"

"It's so basic," the jounin informed us, "_TEAMWORK!_" I nearly smacked myself for not making the connection.

"So you expected three of us to work together to get two bells when whoever didn't get a bell would fail? Of course we weren't going to work together! All of us wanted to pass!" I shouted at Kakashi.

"Exactly," the silver-haired man said, sounding exasperated again. " If you three had all worked together you might have been able to get a bell, but I purposely pitted you against each other." He paused while Naruto looked confused, "I wanted to see if you could _overcome _that and put the _squad _ahead of yourselves. A genin should have a natural feel for teamwork. But you, it never even crossed your mind. Hitori!" I flinched, "You set up traps in an area of a forest, and you could have freed Naruto to help lure me there. Instead you left him there and rushed head long into a fight without communicating!" I glared at the man. "Naruto!" he looked up, "You do everything on your own, _everything_!" Naruto looked to the ground. "And you Sasuke," Sasuke grunted as Kakashi put pressure on his head with his foot. "Also thought the others were below you, so far beneath you they were worthless. You didn't even make sure Hitori was out of the way of your fireball… arrogance."

Kakashi sensei looked back at us, "ninja missions are carried out in squads. Of course you need individual skills, but teamwork is the most essential element. Every shinobi understands this. When individuals put themselves above the squad this can lead to failure and death. For example," he reached into his shuriken pouch and pulled out a kunai, "Hitori, kill Naruto now or Sasuke dies!" he held the kunai at Sasuke's throat as he finished. I couldn't hold back the look of surprise that flashed across my feature as I looked from our sensei, to Sasuke, to Naruto. "That's what happens on a mission." I relaxed my tense body as Kakashi removed the kunai.

The jounin swirled the kunai on his finger as he continued his speech, "the enemy takes a hostage, and you've got an impossible choice. And someone ends up dead." He stopped spinning the kunai and put it back in his pouch, "on every mission your life is on the line." He finally got off of Sasuke and began to walk towards the stone that held our lunch, "did you look at this stone? The names engraved on it? They are all ninja that are honored as heroes in our village."

"That's it that's it!" Naruto exclaimed, "Now I know! I decided I'm gonna have _my _name engraved on the stone!" he announced. "I'm not gonna live and die for nothing like a dog! I'm gonna be a hero! A hero!"

Kakashi looked back at the blond-haired idiot, "They are… a special kind of hero." He told the

"huh?" Naruto asked, "What kind of heroes are they? Tell us!" When Kakashi didn't answer right away Naruto pushed further, "Well!? Well!?"

"They are all KIA." He informed us sadly

"Oooh," Naruto sounded awed, "that sounds real cool" Naruto thought out loud.

I looked at the stupid boy with small sense of pity, "It means killed in action, they all died." I told him. For once the blond-haired idiot was silent in what seemed like sadness or possibly fear. I softened my gaze as memories came flooding back to me. I noticed even Sasuke didn't have the hard look he usually did.

"This is a memorial stone. The names of my closest friends are engraved here." For once I could feel pity, even understanding, for the man instead of irritation, anger, and hate. I felt the sadness reverberating from everyone around me as well. Naruto even sounded like he was trying to hold back tears. "Alright, I'm giving you one more chance." Our sensei told us in a moment of kindness, "But I'm going to make it _much_ harder on you. You'll have three hours to get a bell. Eat lunch now to build up strength, but. Naruto doesn't get any." When Naruto growled Kakashi explained, "It's your punishment for breaking the rules and trying to eat by yourself. And if anyone tries to feed him that person will immediately fail." Kakashi had glare and his voice darkened, "I make the rules, you follow them. Got it?"

We were eating our lunch comfortably around the posts when we heard Naruto's stomach growl. "This is no big deal, I can go without eating for days, for weeks! Believe it! This is no big deal!" Naruto was probably trying to assure himself more than us; it didn't work either way because his stomach growled a second time as soon as he was done with his speech.

"Here," Sasuke offered his lunch to the idiot while I looked at him curiously.

"You're going to go against what Kakashi sensei said?" I questioned him.

"Kakashi's gone," Sasuke informed me as if I didn't know, "we need to get those bells as a team. If Naruto's hungry he'll be weak and ineffective. That hurts the team and jeopardizes the mission." Naruto looked at Sasuke in awe.

"In that case I'll give mine to him." This time it was Sasuke's turn to look at me with questions. "I'm a girl so I eat less than you, so it will do less damage to the team, right?" I grinned at him. I held up my bento to Naruto.

"But isn't that your lunch?" Naruto looked at me with tears filling his eyes.

"Just eat it." I ordered him.

"B-but guys…" Naruto started while we looked at him, "I can't move my hands."

I sighed and walked toward Naruto while my chopsticks held food and brought it to his mouth. He ate the piece of rice gratefully before we were all surprised by the poof of smoke in front him, causing me to whip around and face the jounin that stared at us.

"YOU!" Kakashi shouted dangerously. A strong wind came toward us forcing us to hold our hands in front of our face in an attempt to see. "You broke the rules, I hope you're ready for the punishment." Kakashi stood straight in front of us as he began forming hand seals. Thunderous clouds formed over us as Kakashi asked, "Any last words?"

Naruto spoke through chattering teeth, "B-but you s-said…"

"Yes?" Kakashi questioned

"You said that there were three of us!" Naruto shouted, gaining courage. "That's what you said and that's why Hitori and…" he trailed off, losing his momentary boldness.

"We're all on this squad and we're all in it together!" Sasuke finished for him

"Exactly! The three of us are one!" I shouted in agreement.

Naruto glance between the two of us standing around him, "Yeah yeah yeah!" Naruto screamed louder than any of us, "Believe it! That's right!"

The jounin walked menacingly toward us, "The three of you are one? That's your excuse?" He asked leaning toward us. We stood firm, while staring at him. His eye closed, making look like he was smiling, "You pass."

"Huh?" Naruto asked while I stared at the man waiting for another trick.

"You. Pass." He confirmed

"How?" I inquired.

"You're the first squad that ever succeeded." The silver-haired jounin informed us. "The others did exactly what I said, and fell into every trap. They couldn't think for themselves. A ninja must see through deception. In the ninja world those who break the rules are scum, that's true. But, those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." Naruto started to tear up, I had a small grin, and Sasuke just gave an approving smirk. "Squad 7 starts its first mission tomorrow!" Kakashi announced. After Naruto finished his excited screaming Kakashi said, "Let's go home." We left Naruto with smug looks on our faces ignoring his shouting behind us.

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**A/N: Yeah, so I hoped you enjoyed the first chapter :) If you see anything that needs changed or just to show your support please review 'cuz I really appreciate it ;)  
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***Hitori can mean "one person" or "alone" so keep that in mind... especially as the chunin exams get closer.  
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	2. Protect the Bridge-Builder

**A/N: Yay I'm done with chapter 2! Honestly it's kind of weird for me to write such long chapters, but I'm trying it out :) **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but Hitori.**

* * *

Our first mission was rather boring, as well as every mission after that. We had just come back from returning a vicious cat, and the Hokage started talking about what tasks were available, of course everything he named was boring. Once he said babysitting Naruto finally spoke up, "NOOO! I wanna go on a real mission! Something challenging and exciting, not this little kid stuff! Come on old man!" In my head I agreed with him. We weren't getting any stronger doing these measly tasks.

Iruka stood up and scolded him, "HOW DARE YOU!? You're just a brand new genin with no experience! Like everyone else you start with simple missions to develop your skills and prove yourselves." I held back a snort. How were these missions proving anything?

Naruto glared at him "Are you serious!? Babysitting is not a mission, it's just a stupid…"

Before he could finish what he was saying Kakashi hit him in the head. "Will you put a lid on it?"

"Naruto!" The Hokage finally spoke up. "It seems you do not understand the tasks you have been given." The Hokage began to give a long drawn out speech about different kinds of missions. I honestly found Naruto's talk about ramen more interesting so I tuned the man out until he stopped because we weren't listening.

Naruto turned around to face the Hokage, "You always lecture me like you're my grandfather! I'm not some stupid kid anymore! I'm a ninja now and I want a ninja mission!"

The Hokage surprised us all when he said, "So be it, since you're so determined, I'm going to give you a C-Ranked mission. You'll be bodyguards on a journey." The Hokage smiled as Naruto started asking who we were guarding, "Send in our visitor!" He ordered.

It was obvious to everyone that the man who walked through the door was drunk, it became even more so when he spoke with slurred words, "What's this? A bunch of snot-nosed kids?" He took a swig from the bottle in his hand, "And you, the little one with the idiotic look on your face, do you really expect me to believe you're a ninja?"

"Who's the little one with the idiotic look on his…" He began, but then realized we were all taller than him, and he attempted to attack the drunkard, but was held back by Kakashi.

The drunk old man took another swig from his bottle and spoke, "I am Tazuna, a master bridge-builder and I must return to my country. I'm building a bridge there that will change our world, and I expect you to get me there safely even if it means giving up your life." The man was a bit over-dramatic for it being a C-Ranked mission, but it didn't matter to me as long as the mission was better than the other ones we had.

* * *

/(^o^)/ NARUTO \(^o^)\

* * *

We had just left the village gates and our blond-haired idiot was already yelling, "Yeah! Alright!"

"What's up with you?" I asked him

"This is the first time I ever left the village! I'm a traveler now – believe it!" He answered while still running around.

"I am supposed to trust my life with this runt? He's a joke!" Tazuna said

Kakashi laughed awkwardly and said "He's with me and I'm a jounin, so you don't need to worry."

Naruto clenched his fists before swinging himself around and pointing at Tazuna, "Hey! Never insult a ninja! It's a big mistake! And I'm one of the greatest ninja ever! Someday I'm gonna be the Hokage and you'll look up to me! I'm willing to do anything to become Hokage - no matter what it takes! My name's Naruto Uzumaki – remember it!" Naruto he shouted angrily.

Tazuna took yet another drink. "Hokage are strong and wise. You are puny and brainless. You can become Hokage ten times over and to me you'll still be nobody. A loser."

"You guys are both idiots. What about a Hokage is strong or wise?" I asked both of them with a pointed look.

Naruto, who was about to try to attack Tazuna, looked at me, "What's with you!? Why are you always insulting the Hokage?"

I glared at him, "What have they ever done to deserve the praise you give them? The Hokage's a weak old man that can't even protect the people in his village!"

Kakashi took that moment to step in, "Now, now let's calm down. We have a mission to complete."

"Tch," I muttered before walking forward, ignoring the rest of my so called 'team'.

* * *

/(^o^)/ NARUTO \(^o^)\

* * *

After we walked for a little while, "Doesn't the land of waves have ninjas?"

Kakashi answered my question simply, "No."

I raised an eyebrow, "Why not?"

"The Land of Waves has natural protection from the sea around it so there is no need for ninja. But in other countries there are Hidden Villages – much like our own Hidden Leaf Village." I walked for a while without talking. The never-changing path we were on made it seem like it would take forever. The only evidence that we were even moving at all was the single puddle on the side of the path. However, not long after we passed said puddle Kakashi was wrapped in chains and torn to pieces right in front of us.

In a flash the ninjas responsible were behind Naruto who seemed to be frozen in fear. Before I could react Sasuke had pinned their chains to a tree then jumped on top of their metal arms, and delivered a kick to each of their faces. When they couldn't get their chains free from the tree they unattached them. While one headed toward Tazuna the other went for Naruto. Sasuke looked torn between who he should defend so I rushed to punch the one after Naruto leaving Sasuke free to stop the other one. I punched my enemy in the face which sent him flying into another tree before I looked toward Sasuke, and realized that the only thing he was doing to stop the ninja, or should I say the only thing he had time to do, was to stand in front of Tazuna with his arms spread far apart.

The next thing I knew Kakashi sensei had both ninjas held in his arms, immobile. He spoke casually as if nothing happened, "Naruto, sorry I didn't come help you right away. I didn't mean for you to get hurt, I didn't think you would freeze up like that." That was when I noticed the scratch on Naruto's arm that he must have gotten while I wasn't looking. He walked over to wear the rest of us were at. "Good job Sasuke, very smooth. You too, Hitori." I scowled at being a second thought.

Sasuke turned to face Naruto, "Hey, you're not hurt are you? Scaredy cat." Okay, I refuse to be a fan-girl, but on some level that was kind of cool. If he wasn't being such a show-off of course… Ahem.

Naruto began screaming at Sasuke and moved to attack him before Kakashi yelled, "Naruto! Stand still. These ninja have poison in their claws we need to take it out of you quickly. You have to open the wound and remove it. It's in your blood so don't move around; that spreads the poison." Without turning to face him he addressed the bridge-builder, "By the way mister Tazuna."

The drunkard looked startled as he answered, "Yeah? What?"

Kakashi looked over his shoulder menacingly, "We need to talk."

* * *

/(^o^)/ NARUTO \(^o^)\

* * *

We got the two ninjas tied up and Kakashi began talking, "They're chunin from the village hidden in the mist. Their specialty is relentless attack. They keep fighting no matter what the sacrifice."

One the enemy ninjas looked up, "How did you know about our ambush?"

Kakashi looked at them, "A puddle, on a clear day, when it hasn't rained in weeks."

"In that case why did you leave it for the genin to do the fighting?" Tazuna asked

"I could have taken them out quickly, but then I would have learned nothing" he looked at Tazuna, "I had to learn who their target was. And, what they were after."

"What are you getting at?" The bridge-builder asked our sensei roughly.

"This. I wanted to know if they were after us: Ninja attacking ninja. Or, if they were after you, the master bridge-builder. When you put in your request you asked for standard protection, from robbers and highwaymen. You didn't say there were ninja looking for you… hunting you down. If we knew this it would be a B-ranked mission or higher. Our task was simply to get you to your destination and protect you while you finished the bridge. If we knew we would be fielding attacks from enemy ninja we would have staffed differently, and charged for the cost of a B-mission. Apparently you have your reasons, but lying to us is not acceptable. We are now beyond the scope of this mission."

I looked at Kakashi sensei, "We'd be fine if this guy," I gestured to Naruto. "Didn't freeze up get himself poisoned."

Kakashi looked as if he was thinking, "Naruto's hand could become a problem." He agreed. "I guess we should go back to the village."

Naruto looked at his wound in frustration, before taking out a kunai and stabbing into his wound. As he bled the poison out he made an oath, "I worked so hard to get here, pushing myself until it hurt, training alone for hours, _anything _to get stronger, to reach my dream. I will never back down again, and let someone _else _rescue me. I will _never _run away, and I will not lose to Sasuke! Upon this wound, I make this pledge! Believe it!" Without turning he addressed Tazuna, "Bridge-builder, I will complete this mission and protect you with _this _kunai knife! A real ninja never gives up and neither will I!" I held back mentioning that his dream was stupid just this once. The idiot deserved to have his moment, same as Sasuke.

"Uh Naruto," Kakashi began, "That was really cool how you took the poison out and all, but if you lose any more blood you're going to die." This of course caused Naruto to panic even more while Kakashi looked at the wound. After Kakashi deemed Naruto fit to continue the mission we continued to walk on.

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/(^o^)/ NARUTO \(^o^)\

* * *

When we were almost there we had to cross the water to get to our destination. We were obviously trying to sneak by, seeing as we were surrounded by a dense fog and we cut all the engines. Once we were close enough to actually see the bridge Naruto started yelling about how big it was and the driver of the boat had to shush him, before he alerted a bunch of enemy ninjas to our position. Before we reached the shore Kakashi began questioning Tazuna some more, so we were more prepared for what was to come. The bridge-builder explained to us that Gato, a man everybody heard of, was after him. After explaining everything he told us he immediately spoke to us about his family so we would feel guilty if we left him. This probably worked best on me because of my soft-spot for people being targeted with no defense.

Naruto was now determined to show up Sasuke and threw his kunai into a bush pretending he heard something. Even after Kakashi scolded him he was determined to look cool, so he threw a second kunai into a bush where he actually heard something. I watched curiously while Kakashi walked through the bush and found a white rabbit scared from almost being hit by the kunai. The minute Naruto saw the rabbit he began to hug the rabbit, saying sorry, probably scaring it more than it already was.

Seemingly out of nowhere a sword came swinging over our head and we all head to get down. Kakashi looked at the man standing on top of sword handle, "Well well, if it isn't Zabuza Momochi… rouge ninja from the village hidden in the mist." Naruto rushed forward to attack the ninja, but Kakashi held an arm out to stop him, "You're in the way… get back."

"But, why!?" Naruto protested.

"He's not like those two from before." Kakashi explained, "He's in a whole other league. If he's our opponent I'll need this…" He moved his hand to his headband. "This could be treacherous."

"Kakashi of the sharingan eye…" The enemy jounin started, "did I get that correct? It's too bad, but you'll have to hand over the old man." Zabuza ordered.

"Quick!" Kakashi shouted back to us, "Manji formation! Protect the bridge-builder and stay _out _of this fight. I taught you teamwork… Now it's time to use it." Kakashi revealed his other eye, and what I saw was different than anything I had seen before. Somehow it elicited both a sense of fear and respect.

Naruto finally asked a question I had been wondering, "Everyone keeps saying sharingan sharingan… Will someone please tell me what the heck that is?"

"The sharingan is a rare power that resides in the eyes. It allows a ninja to instantly see and understand any type of jutsu." Sasuke answered. "The user can also reflect the attack back at the attacker, but… There is even more to the sharingan than that." I could see how hard he clenched his teeth, as if he was angry about something.

Zabuza looked at us, "You got it right boy, but you've only scratched the surface, the sharingan can analyze an opponent's technique and then copy it to the smallest detail." The mist around us thickened before the enemy spoke again, "As for you jounin, in the assassination unit of the hidden mist, we had a standing order to kill you on sight. Your profile was in our bingo book. They called you the man who copied over a thousand jutsu: Kakashi Hatake, the copy ninja." After a pause Zabuza spoke again, "Enough talking, I need to exterminate the old man, now!"

All four of us genin rushed in front of Tazuna with kunai raised and ready to defend him. We looked in disbelief as Zabuza stood on water as if it was nothing. I could feel the power of the chakra that emanating from him as he used a jutsu to increase the density of the fog surrounding us. Kakashi sensei must have felt the discomfort emanating from us so he attempted to reassure us, "He'll come after me first."

"Who the hell is he?" I asked harshly.

"Zabuza Momochi, The ex-leader of the hidden-mist assassination unit, and a master of the silent killing technique."

"S-silent?" Naruto asked with a worried edge to his voice.

"As the name suggests it happens in an instant, without sound or warning of any kind. It's so fast you pass from this life without realizing what happened. The sharingan cannot fully neutralize it, so be on your guard." As hard as I tried to push it down a feeling of dread passed through my body. "Well if we fail we only lose our lives." He said it as if it meant nothing to him.

"Thanks sensei that makes me feel somuch better!" I said with a sickeningly cheerful, but obviously sarcastic, voice. He ignored what I said and thickness of the fog grew so thick I could barely see him, and the silence that followed didn't help the fearful atmosphere.

Honestly I preferred the silence to what broke it, "Eight points." Zabuza allowed the fear to sink in for a moment before continuing. "Larynx. Spine. Lungs. Liver. Jugular. Subclavian artery. Kidneys. Heart. Now which will be my attack point?"

The whispered voice with which he spoke added to the terrifying atmosphere as we tried to see where it was coming from. It was no use of course; we couldn't even see Kakashi sensei. Our sensei built up a huge amount of chakra that blew the mist around us away so we could clearly see him. It should have comforted me to see my sensei standing there, but instead the large mass of chakra he created added to the threat of an invisible ninja increased my panic.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi sensei broke me my thoughts, "Calm down." I looked over to Sasuke puzzled as to why sensei comforted him. "I'll protect you with my life. All of you. I will not allow my comrades die." He turned to us with what I learned by now is a smile, "Trust me." I heard those words, and I knew I would hold him to them. I can't stand empty promises, but more often than not that is what promises turn out to be. Still, it added some level of comfort until Zabuza spoke.

"I wouldn't be so sure." He appeared in behind us, his sword held behind his back. "It's over!" He swung his sword, but in a flash Kakashi was in front of him stopping the sword and stabbing him in the stomach the rest of us immediately jumped back and stared. Instead of blood pouring out of the fatal wound, it was water. As the clone turned into nothing but water the real Zabuza materialized out of the fog to attack Kakashi.

"Sensei! Behind you!" Naruto's shout of warning did nothing because in a second Zabuza's sword sliced Kakashi in half and we saw our sensei die for a second time. This time we were actually paying attention though so we immediately learned he didn't really die when his body turned into water. The real Kakashi appeared behind Zabuza and held a kunai to his throat

"Don't move. You're finished." I was relieved. The way Kakashi spoke of the man I thought it would be a lot more difficult.

Zabuza chuckled, "Finished?" All of looked at him curiously, "You really don't get it do you? Your technique is nothing but a crass imitation. I'll never be defeated by a mere copycat ninja like you." Zabuza continued chuckling, "You are full of surprises, though. You'd already copied my water clone jutsu when you made your little speech. Very skillfully executed, you made your clone say those words to draw my attention, while you hid in the mist waiting for me to make my move." It bothered me that he was nitpicking Kakashi's fight. It gave off a feel that he was superior. "Nice try, but I'm not that easy to fool." He appeared behind Kakashi sensei and the Zabuza that was being threatened turned to water.

"That one's a clone too!" Naruto shouted. Under any other circumstance I would've called him out for being obvious, but the danger was too high for my sarcastic comments.

Zabuza swung his large sword, but Kakashi ducked underneath it. The sword continued moving until it wedged in the ground, so Zabuza used it as leverage to aim a kick at Kakashi. Our sensei went flying into a lake. Zabuza grabbed his sword and began to rush toward the lake, but stopped cold when he saw the spikes on the bank. He turned and did a back flip into the water so Naruto, being the loud mouth he is, shouted, "Sensei!"

"He has great physical skill too." Sasuke noted. I, on the other hand, stayed silent searching the water for any signs of blood. Kakashi was the first head out of the water with his hair flopped down.

Zabuza stood on the water again and ran behind our sensei. He chuckled, "Fool." After an abundance of hand signs he spoke, "Water prison jutsu!" We watched Kakashi get wrapped by water with no way out. "This prison may be water - but it's stronger than steel. Hard to fight when you can't move, so much for the great Kakashi. I'll finish you off later but first, your little friends will have to be eliminated." Zabuza turned his head to look at us before holding his free hand up in a sign. "Water Clone Jutsu!" A second Zabuza emerged from the water while the first still talked, "You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja? When you've hovered between life and death so many times it doesn't faze you, then you may be called a ninja. When you've become so deadly your profile is entered into my bingo book then you may have earned the title ninja. But to call upstarts like you ninja is a joke!"

He used his jutsu to thicken the fog around him so we could no longer see him. Then he appeared in front of Naruto and sent him flying. He set his foot down on the headband that had fallen off of Naruto's forehead, "you're just brats."

Kakashi sensei tried to tell us to leave, but none of us saw running away as an option which Sasuke voiced, "We've got to do it!" With a battlecry Sasuke rushed forward to attack the clone throwing shuriken as he went. Zabuza easily deflected all of them with his sword, but Sasuke used the time that Zabuza was blinded by the sword to jump and attempt to stab him with a kunai. Zabuza caught Sasuke in the air by his throat then threw him to ground. I rushed over to where he was on the ground to examine the damage.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Naruto cowering in the shadow of Zabuza. When he turned to crawl away I growled at him, "Don't you dare run away!"

He looked at me, "What are you talking about!? He's too strong!" Sasuke also stood up and looked at me strangely.

I glared at him, "Look at your right hand and tell me if you're still going to run."

With a questioning gaze he looked at his bandaged hand, and his eyes widened with realization. He grinned at me, "Thanks Hitori." He then turned to glare at Zabuza before rushing forward.

"Idiot! Not running away doesn't mean to attack meaninglessly and get yourself killed!" Zabuza easily kicked the idiot back, leaving Naruto painfully on the ground feet away. When he struggled to pick himself up I noticed that Naruto now had his headband in his bandaged hand. _Why go through so much trouble for a headband? _

When the idiot got himself standing he looked dangerously at Zabuza, "Hey you, freak with no eyebrows, put this in your bingo book: The ninja that will become hokage, Naruto Uzumaki." Without turning his face away from Zabuza he spoke again, "Alright Sasuke, listen up, you hear me?"

"Yeah I hear you."

"I've got a plan." I wasn't sure what to think of Naruto having a plan, but I was definitely annoyed that I couldn't do anything.

"So you're finally thinking about teamwork, huh?" Sasuke asked with his never-changing expression. After Naruto whispered his plan to Sasuke Kakashi tried once again to get us to run away by reminding us of our mission to protect the bridge builder. Naruto followed this up by looking at Tazuna, "Bridge-builder?"

"Well, this all happened because of me, because of my desire to live, but I won't let that stand in your way now. Forget about me, and do what you have to do! Go ahead and fight to save your sensei!"

"Besides," I stared at Naruto, "Does this plan of yours involve me?"

"Well, no." He said with a sheepish look.

"Then I'll take care of Tazuna! You guys make sure to catch up!" I turned Tazuna around and ushered him to leave with me. Zabuza attempted to stop me, but Naruto stopped him with a barrage of clones. "You'd better not die." I muttered to myself before urging Tazuna to move faster. Whenever we made a turn I made sure to make a mark on a tree for my team. I trusted them not to lose, so I had to make sure they found their way back.

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**A/N: So I hope you guys liked this chapter. Hopefully Hitori doesn't seem to useless, really she isn't but I don't want to change the story too much yet. Also, she left with the bridge-builder which is different so... By the way special thanks to YamiHinata for being my first reviewer yippee! Also, sorry if I'm moving too fast, but honestly I want to get to the chunin exams because that's when everything picks up :P  
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	3. A suffering village

**A/N: Hi guys :) Thanks for your review they made me jump up and down squealing. Thanks a bunch to pizzafan123 I'm so glad you asked me to update, and I plan to try to update every weekend ;) Also thanks to xXCobaltFlameXx who also writes an awesome fanfiction kind of like this one. More thanks to YamiHinata who even if you didn't have anything to say especially about the last chapter the smiley you sent made me happy. And lastly, thanks to nathy155 for favoriting and following that made me loads of happy. Now on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

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I arrived at Tazuna's house with good speed and met his daughter, Tsunami. She was a kind woman and she assured me that my team would come back despite never having met them. At first it raised my spirits, but as time dragged on I was losing hope. When I heard a knock on the door it was all I could do not to jump up and answer it. Instead, I followed close behind Tsunami as she answered the door. There stood my team; I would have been much happier if Kakashi sensei wasn't draped over Sasuke's shoulders. Tazuna carried him over to a bedroll while his daughter and I got hot water and medicine. Once we got a wet towel on his forehead I turned to Sasuke, "What happened to him?" I wasn't actually a medical ninja, but I did do some studying to make sure I could treat minor wounds.

"Chakra exhaustion."

I breathed a sigh of relief, "you two are alright then?" I asked meaning him and Naruto.

"Yeah."

I noticed something seemed to be bothering Naruto and I almost asked what it was, but decided against it in favor of watching over Kakashi.

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/(^o^)/ NARUTO \(^o^)\

* * *

I stayed by my sensei's side until he woke up the next morning with a dazed expression. "Sensei!" I grinned.

Tsunami walked in, "Waking up huh? Feeling better?"

He sat up slowly, "I've been better, it'll be a week before I can move normally."

"It's better if you don't move, so just lie down." Tsunami commanded. It was strange to see Kakashi sensei complying so easily. After Naruto, Sasuke, and Tazuna entered the room he sat back up and looked at us.

"Hey sensei who was that masked boy?" Naruto asked him.

"Masked boy?" I questioned looking at him.

"Oh yeah, some guy in a mask came in and killed Zabuza before Kakashi sensei had the chance." Naruto explained.

"Ah, that mask means that he was a tracker ninja or ANBU." Kakashi answered. "They destroy all traces of a ninjas body so that the secrets can't be used against them. Take me for example, if I were to die at the hands of an enemy ninja they would analyze my sharingan. Worst case scenario it could be used against the village." Kakashi stopped talking and seemed to be lost in thought.

"Hey, are you okay?" Naruto asked him.

"Hm," Kakashi seemed to be broken out of whatever thoughts he had, "Oh yeah, to finish what I was saying, tracker ninja deal with the body immediately, on the spot, so that there's no room for error."

I looked at him, "What does that have to do with anything? Is it really that important?"

"But, but," Naruto stared in confusion, "that guy carried him away."

"Exactly, do you remember what that tracker did with Zabuza's body?"

"Ugh, I wasn't even there!" I screamed in frustration.

Sasuke finally spoke up, "We don't know what he did, because he took Zabuza with him."

"That's right Sasuke, but why? He should have worked on Zabuza right there. Think of the weapons he used for the takedown." At this point I was a few seconds from ripping my hair out. If I had known I was going to miss that much I might not have taken Tazuna away.

"Throwing needles." Sasuke said with sudden clarity, "No way."

"Exactly," Kakashi sensei said again, "none of it adds up."

I stood up and glared at the three men around me, "Okay, I get it I missed a lot, and now I have no idea what's going on! Does someone want to explain!?"

Kakashi looked at me, "Here's the truth: Zabuza's still alive."

"Great, I leave you guys to do the work and you can't get it done." I huffed at them while sitting back down.

Naruto glanced at me and then at Kakashi, "But we saw his body, believe it! You even said that his heart stopped!"

"His heart did stop, but that was just a temporary state to simulate death." Kakashi sensei explained, "The weapon that ninja used were called senbon, although they pierce deep they rarely kill unless they hit a vital organ." Rather than the terrified look I expected on Naruto's face after the revelation he looked excited. I really didn't understand the blond-haired idiot; was he a coward, or brave?

"So how would we 'prepare' as you say, if you can barely move?" I questioned our sensei.

He laughed at me earning a glare, "I can still train you. I was able to stop Zabuza because you helped me. You've all grown. Naruto, you've grown the most."

Naruto giggled, "So you noticed Kakashi sensei, now things are going to get better – believe it."

Just as I was about knock him off his high-horse I heard a child's voice behind me, "I don't believe it, and nothing's gonna be good!" We turned to see a kid who was probably a couple years younger than us.

"Who are you!?" Naruto shouted at the kid.

"Inari, where've you been?" Tazuna called to him affectionately.

"Welcome back grandpa!" Inari said happily as he ran into his grandfather open arms with the rest of staring at him curiously.

"Inari, that was very rude." Tsunami scolded the boy. "These ninja helped your grandpa and brought him her safely."

Tazuna started patting Inari before speaking, "It's okay it's okay I'm rude to them too." This of course earned a glare from all of us. Especially seeing as we could drop the mission whenever he wanted because he lied.

Inari walked up to his mother, "Mom, don't you see these people are gonna die! Gato and his men will come back and wipe them out!

Naruto suddenly stood up and pointed at Inari, "What did you say brat! Listen up, you know what a super ninja is? Well that's me only a lot better! I'm gonna be hokage! This Gato person is no match for a real hero like me!"

Inari glared at the idiot, "There's no such thing as a hero; you're just full of stupid ideas!"

I burst out laughing, "I think I like this kid."

Naruto glared at me before looking back at Inari, "What'd you say!"

Inari simply turned his back on him and gave him one more piece of 'advice' over his shoulder, "If you wanna stay alive you should go back where you came from." Then he walked away leaving Naruto fuming.

Tazuna, suddenly deciding to be courteous, turned to Naruto, "Sorry about that." When Naruto walked off I got Sasuke and Kakashi to give me the full run-down of what I missed with Zabuza so I could understand what I was up against.

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/(^o^)/ NARUTO \(^o^)\

* * *

When Naruto came back Kakashi sensei walked us all into the forest. I wasn't sure how he was going to train us considering he was on crutches, but I guess I shouldn't have underestimated the man who took down an S-class ninja, even if he didn't kill him.

Kakashi started by talking about chakra. Since Naruto had apparently forgotten about that I had to explain to him what chakra was simply. Of course the blonde-haired idiot still didn't get it. So, after giving an overly-dramatic speech about how we were inadequate with our chakra Kakashi finally told us what we had to do: climb a tree, with no hands.

"How can you climb a tree with no hands?" I asked, "Unless you expect us to jump, but that's not really climbing."

"Just watch," He put his hands into a basic hand-sign. He proceeded to slowly walk towards a tree, and when he finally reached it he walked on it like gravity was meaningless. He even ended up standing upside down on one of the branches. "Well you get the idea. Focus your chakra toward the soles of your feet then use it to connect to the tree. This is one way to apply the power of chakra."

I clapped my hands condescendingly, "Nice trick, but how does it help us fight Zabuza?"

"This is the only way to fight Zabuza, Hitori. This method of climbing requires a precise amount of chakra in a precise point. This is difficult even for advanced ninja. This also requires a subtle mix of physical and spiritual energy, and the bottoms of the feet are the most difficult point to focus chakra. Are you getting the picture? If you can master this you can, in theory, master any jutsu. This will also teach you to maintain your chakra because those who can't will die quickly in battle. Well I could talk about this all day, but that wouldn't advance your skills." He threw a kunai in front of each of us. "Use those to mark your progress.

All three of us drew chakra to our feet. Then I proceeded to ignore the other two and focus entirely on my feet and the tree. From the moment my foot touched the tree it was like I could feel the connection between it and the tree and was able adjust my chakra accordingly. I continued running while keeping the perfect balance of chakra. After I figured I was high enough I stopped on branch and looked down at my teammates. They looked almost like ants, but I could tell that Sasuke and Naruto didn't get anywhere near as far as I did so I decided to be mean, "Well that easy!"

From what I could tell Kakashi was only mildly, if at all, surprised with my ability, "Well, looks like the female is the most advanced with chakra control. Well done Hitori." I grinned evilly at the rest of my squad. Naruto praised me while Sasuke simply rolled his eyes. I could tell that both of them were just trying to not look stupid in front of the other though. "Seems Hitori has the best chance to be hokage."

"Ugh, as if!" I shouted.

Kakashi continued on as if he hadn't heard me, "and it looks like the Uchiha's aren't much either."

Even though I had complete grasp over the tree climbing I stayed back to train anyway, and despite the fact that I had better chakra control I ran out of chakra long before Sasuke and Naruto so I took a break to watch them for a while. Sasuke was slowly getting there, but Naruto barely made any progress at all. After I watched him fall for the umpteenth time I noticed the blonde-haired idiot was heading over to me. "Hey Hitori, since your good at this could you give me some tips? But don't tell Sasuke I asked."

I sighed, "It's simple isn't it? Chakra relies on spiritual energy, which is about your mind. Therefore you can't get so distracted; you need to focus on the tree. It's all about concentration."

* * *

/(^o^)/ NARUTO \(^o^)\

* * *

I went back long before the other two did, because Tazuna was going out to the bridge to work and sensei needed someone to guard him. While I sat on the bridge I couldn't help the yawn that escaped my mouth. Tazuna looked at me, "Are you always this lazy? Where's your blonde friend, and the quiet one?"

"Training, they're climbing trees."

"What, was it too hard for you?"

I glared at him, "For your information I was the best so sensei sent me to guard you."

He snorted, "You're kidding."

While I glared at him one of the workers ran up to him, "Tazuna I need to speak to you about the bridge."

"What is it?" He asked gruffly.

I watched in horror while the guy told Tazuna he didn't want to work on the bridge anymore and in awe as Tazuna told him that he would risk his life for the village. When the man still said he still wanted out Tazuna told everyone to break for lunch and the man not to show up anymore. Before I went to eat lunch with Tazuna I ran up in front of the man, "Why do you make promises if you can't keep them?" I demanded.

"Look, you're still a kid and you want to look at the world like that, but I've seen people die and I'm not gonna waste my life."

I glared at him, "jerk." I muttered before running to eat my lunch with Tazuna. "Hey old man."

"What?"

"Let me take that guy's place. You think that I'm weak, but I hate people who break promises so I'm gonna help you out."

Tazuna looked taken back at first, but then he smiled and ruffled my hair, "You're not bad kid."

I did help him. I didn't know anything about building a bridge, but I would say Tazuna was pleasantly surprised with my strength, even if I did use chakra to cheat a bit. When we were both worn out and sweaty we headed into town to get food for supper. There, I saw the extent to which Gato made the town suffer. Not only adults, but children were on the streets begging for food or jobs. At one point a child came up to me, and I couldn't help but give him the meager bit of food I had in my bag.

When we got back to Tazuna's house I helped Tsunami make food, but the children's pitiful expressions never left my thoughts. By the time Naruto and Sasuke got back from their training food was ready; they helped themselves not knowing the luxury Tazuna was providing. The old man even went so far as to say he was happy having so many people at the dinner table; I wanted to cry. It was all I could do not to punch my two idiotic teammates when they shoveled in all the expensive food, only to throw it up.

After I was finished eating I asked about the picture hanging on the wall. I was curious because Inari continuously glanced at it. After Inari ran out Tazuna told us the story of Inari's father, the hero. After hearing about a man who stood up to Gato, but killed all the same it suddenly made sense why the town was so without hope. Because Gato took it from them. I clenched my hand into my fists vowing that I would free this town from everything I hated.

After the story Naruto got up to leave but fell down immediately due to chakra exhaustion. "What are you doing, idiot?"

"I'm gonna prove it!" He stated as he struggled to just to get on one knee.

"Prove what?" I asked with a smirk, because I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.

Once he forced himself up he answered my question with a determined smile, "I'm gonna prove that in this world there are real heroes!"

My smirk turned into an all out grin, "Good, I'll hold you to that.

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**A/N: So I hope this chapter was good, too. I did my best to show all the emotion and how even though Hitori is cocky and somewhat mean she has that caring side as well. Please leave a review it doesn't have to be extravagant I just like to know that you liked the chapter :) See you next week!  
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	4. Battle on the Bridge

**A/N: Hi guys thanks for being awesome and leaving all those great reviews they make my day every time. Specifics thanks to: YamiHinata, xXCobaltFlameXx, pizzafan123, and DrunkenBunny for leaving awesome reviews you guys are awesome! Thanks to Nathy155 for favoriting and following :) Now onto the chapter -**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

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Our days fell into a steady rhythm where Kakashi sensei would rest while Naruto, Sasuke, and I would train. Then, when Tazuna was ready to head out I would come with him and help him build. Naruto continuously stayed out all night to train and once he even forgot breakfast. When I woke up and noticed Naruto wasn't there I sighed, "That idiot. He could be dead from chakra exhaustion for all we know."

"I certainly hope he's okay." Tsunami said somewhat worriedly, "A child spending night in the woods alone."

"There's nothing to worry about," Kakashi assured her, "Naruto's a goofy kid, but he's also a full-fledged ninja. He can take care of himself."

"Hitori's right," Sasuke challenged, "Naruto's such a loser; he's probably lying out there dead somewhere." He then got up to leave.

"What's up Sasuke?" I asked.

"I'm going for a walk."

I smirked, "Good luck finding Naruto."

He froze then glared over his shoulder, "Who would look for that loser."

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/(^_^)/ NARUTO \(^_^)\

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After the rest of us ate dinner Kakashi sensei and I decided to look for the two boys because neither one of them had come back. We wondered into the forest where we had been training earlier, but they were nowhere in sight. "Where are those idiots?" I muttered to myself before a kunai came flying from the tree. It wasn't aimed at us, but rather at the ground in front of us; we followed the trajectory and saw Naruto lounging on a tree branch.

"What do you think high enough for you guys? I mean it's a long way down!"

I crossed my arms and looked at him evilly, "Sure it's high. Just not nearly as high as I can go."

He glared at me, and stood up on the branch. Next thing we knew Naruto was losing his balance and he tipped away from the tree branch. He caught himself and stood upside down on the branch, and laughed at our expressions, "just kidding! You guys really fell for it!" He barely stood there for a second before his feet popped of the branch, and with no way to catch himself this time.

Suddenly Sasuke ran from a different tree and stood upside down similar to Naruto on the same branch and caught his ankles, "You really are a total loser Naruto."

I burst into fits of giggles, "Yeah, you should have let him fall Sasuke." I did my best to hold in my laughter, but the sight of Naruto just hanging from Sasuke was hilarious, "I thought you said you wouldn't lose to Sasuke!"

"Hitori!" He yelled angrily at me.

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/(^_^)/ NARUTO \(^_^)\

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I helped out Tazuna a bit at the bridge before helping Tsunami with supper back at the house. It was already getting dark, but Sasuke and Naruto were nowhere in sight. We were just setting the table with food when they walked in, Naruto draped over Sasuke's shoulders. "Do you have a thing for carrying men on your shoulders Sasuke?" I teased.

"This loser used too much chakra." He answered.

Naruto looked up with a grin, "We both made it. We climbed all the way to the top."

"Good," Kakashi nodded his head, "Now we move on." Their heads peaked up a bit of this. "Starting tomorrow you both bodyguards for Tazuna." Naruto immediately cheered jumping around with his arm still around Sasuke's neck causing them both to fall down.

"You're such a loser!" Sasuke complained causing all of us around the table to giggle.

After dinner Tazuna spoke, "In a few days the bridge will be finished and I have you to thank for that."

"You've all done great, but you've still got to be careful." Tsunami warned.

Tazuna ignored her, "I've been meaning to ask you this, but I haven't had the chance until now. Why did you stay and protect me even after I lied to you?"

Kakashi sensei answered, "'Those who stray from the path of justice have no courage, but under the wing of a strong leader cowardice cannot survive'." After looking at everyone's confused faces he half-explained, "That was a quote from the first hokage."

Inari suddenly stood up and allowed tears to stream down his face and unto the table, "But why…"

Naruto lifted his face from its resting point on his arms, "What'd you say?" It wasn't in angry tone, only a curious one.

Inari slammed his hands down and shouted, "All this stupid training is just a waste of time! Gato's got a whole army! He'll beat you down, and they'll destroy you! These cool things you all say… they don't mean anything! No matter what you do the strong always win and the weak always lose!"

Naruto put his head back down, "Just speak for yourself. It won't be like that for me you got that?"

"Why don't you be quiet! ?" Inari protested. "Just looking at you makes me sick! You don't know anything about this country; you're just butting in! Always laughing and playing around! You don't know what it's like to suffer and be treated like dirt!"

I think we all saw the immediate change in Naruto as Inari screamed the last part. "Listen to yourself whining and complaining like some sorry little victim. You can whimper all day for all I care. You're nothing but a coward!" Parts of the conversation broke my heart into a million pieces as I remembered all of the times I saw Naruto crying as a kid. I remembered seeing every adult glare at him, and the children, following in their footsteps, doing the same. Naruto walked away leaving Inari to sob at the table a little longer before running off himself.

* * *

/(^_^)/ NARUTO \(^_^)\

* * *

The next morning we didn't bother waking Naruto because he had exhausted himself enough that he needed the rest. Meanwhile, Sasuke, Kakashi, and I went with Tazuna to the bridge. When we arrived the sight before us was heart-wrenching. Tazuna's workers were sprawled everywhere across the bridge. When we saw the mist beginning to surround us we could tell immediately what had happened. Kakashi yelled at us to get ready and we pulled out a kunai and watched Tazuna's blind sides.

We heard Zabuza's disembodied voice, "Sorry I kept you waiting Kakashi. I see you've still got those brats with you. That one's still trembling." I looked behind me, and sure enough Sasuke's hand was quivering. "Pitiful." As soon as he was finished speaking we came face-to-face with several Zabuza's surrounding us and I tightened my grip on my kunai.

I heard Sasuke's confident chuckle as he said, "I'm trembling with… excitement."

"Go on Sasuke." Kakashi's confident voice sounded. One Zabuza grunted with frustration as he moved to attack Sasuke. Within moments Sasuke's quick movements allowed him to destroy every water clone around us.

"Oooh, so you could see they were water clones huh?" Zabuza said as he stepped into our view with his masked accomplice, "brat's improving. Looks like you've got a rival Haku."

"So it seems." The boy agreed.

The silence that seemed to last forever, but truly endured for only a second, was broken by Kakashi, "Well well, so I had it right. It was all an act."

"An act?" I was so close to face-palming when Tazuna said this. I mean, hadn't we already explained this earlier.

We passed around several comments about the duo's ploy when Sasuke finally said, "That's it I'm taking him out." The boy suddenly began spinning toward us at such a speed he seemed to be a tornado. Sasuke braced himself and was able to stop the whirlwind with a kunai against the needle Haku held in his hand.

"Hitori, cover Tazuna, and stay close to me. Let Sasuke handle this." Kakashi ordered.

"Right!" I complied and jumped closer to Tazuna keeping a tight grip on my kunai and my eyes locked Haku and Sasuke. Their speed was incredible as the clashed one with a kunai the other with a needle. They exchanged more words before Haku started forming handsigns with only one hand, something I had never even heard of.

The water surrounding the two lifted up and became a thousand little needles aimed toward Sasuke. Sasuke didn't even flinch as Haku jumped away. The mist that rose from when the needles impacted clouded the vision I should have had of Sasuke, and I anxiously looked toward where he stood to assess the damage. However, when mist cleared he was nowhere in sight. When shuriken came flying from the air toward Haku I looked to the sky to see my teammate without a scratch on him. I heaved a sigh of relief while I continued to watch the fight with steady eyes.

In a flash Sasuke was behind Haku and the two boys were once again clashing against one another so quickly it was nearly impossible for the eye to see. Somehow Sasuke was able to gain an advantage and kicked Haku all the way back Zabuza. "Thought you were faster huh? What else are you wrong about! ?"

"You made a big mistake insulting these ninja and calling them brats." Kakashi sensei informed them. "That's just guaranteed to bring out Sasuke's attitude; and he's the best young fighter of the hidden leaf village. And Hitori here is our sharpest mind, along with a sharp tongue of course." I smirked at the second comment. "And last, but not least, our number one hyper-active knucklehead ninja is Naruto Uzumaki.

As Haku stood back up I could feel him building up chakra and the air became noticeably colder. Around him and Sasuke a rectangular mirrors of ice formed and Haku seemed to blend into one and was reflected across every single one of them. As Kakashi moved to help him Zabuza stopped him and began a second fight. While I stood by Tazuna I was unable to join either fight, nor would I be of help if I tried, that much I knew. Before long though, Naruto, in the showiest way possible, arrived on the bridge announcing himself. While Naruto was just standing there Zabuza threw shuriken at him. We all watched in horror as Naruto just stood there with a panicked look on his face until needles hit the shuriken and they all fell to the ground.

"Haku! What are you doing?" Zabuza asked harshly.

"Zabuza, this boy, let me fight him my own way... please." The masked boy replied.

"So you're wanting me to leave this to you. Is that it Haku? As usual you're too soft!"

"Forgive me."

Sasuke was still trapped in the ice mirrors while Haku and Naruto stared each other down. While they weren't doing anything Sasuke threw a kunai at Haku which he easily dodged. At that point Hakue turned away from Naruto and stepped back into his mirrors to finish off Sasuke. Then Naruto, being the idiot he is, walked into the mirrors to 'help' Sasuke.

After Zabuza bragged about Haku he created a mist so thick that nobody could see anything. I stood closer to Tazuna and hoped that I would be able to sense if Zabuza got close. After a few agonizing minutes Zabuza did show up behind Tazuna. I built up chakra in my hand, and used all my strength to throw Tazuna a few feet away, and braced myself for death. That was when Kakashi sensei showed up but instead of stopping Zabuza's attack, he took it. "You were late Kakashi." Zabuza's cruel voice sent shivers down my spine. "Your concern for those brats added further to the mist that clouds your eyes."

As he disappeared back into the mist I ran back towards Tazuna. "If I was smart, I would take you away from the battle…" I told him, "Just like I did before."

"Huh?" He questioned.

"I should take you away from the battle because my mission is to protect you, but…" I turned to him the most serious face I could muster, "But I'm confident that my team will take Zabuza and Haku out, and that I can protect you until then." I looked away again, "So, if you want to leave just say the word and we'll get out of here."

I could feel him looking at me, weighing the options. "You're a good kid, and I got you into this mess. If you think your team can do it then so do I."

I looked over my shoulder with a smile, "Thanks Tazuna." Then I turned and looked back preparing for Zabuza to strike again. Not long afterwards I felt an evil chakra, and my first thought was that it had to be Zabuza, but my instinct told me that it was something far more malicious.

Once again we waited in the silence until we heard growling of some sort, "That dreadful noise, what could it be! ?" Tazuna asked quickly.

"I'm not sure." Some part of me was hoping it wasn't connected to the evil presence that I could no longer feel.

* * *

/(^_^)/ NARUTO \(^_^)\

* * *

I continued to stand still with my senses sharpened. As the fog lifted I could see two figures standing still, as if squaring off, but I couldn't be sure which one was Kakashi sensei. After a second one of them moved to attack the other. After a huge blast of air the fog lifted enough for me to see Kakashi hand on Haku's chest covered in blood. "Za-bu-za." I barely heard Haku utter his dying breath as he gripped Kakashi's wrist holding it still in a literal death grip. Zabuza took that chance to swing his large sword, attempting to cut my sensei in half. Kakashi hugged Haku's body and deftly fipped backwards with the boy; in the moments he managed to free himself from the dead boy's grip.

Zabuza chuckled cruelly, "Not bad for having corpse in your arms."

That was when I heard Naruto's voice, "You'll pay for that!"

"No!" Kakashi demanded cutting off whatever else Naruto was planning to say. "Stay out of this Naruto!" Kakashi laid Haku down and respectfully closed the deceased eyes. "This is my battle! Zabuza's mine!" He declared while looking up to glare at the S-Class criminal.

When he was finished with his speech I looked toward Naruto, "Hey idiot! You and Sasuke managed beat Haku! ?" I furrowed my brows as I saw Naruto, the loudest person I knew, struggle to form words. "What's wrong? Where's Sasuke?"

"Sasuke… He…" I could tell what he was trying to say. Sasuke was… dead.

"Tazuna," I looked at him with determined eyes. "Do you mind walking with me?"

He nodded, "Let's go." I dragged him behind Kakashi sensei and past Naruto to see Sasuke's cold body lying before me. I felt for a pulse, any sign that it wasn't real, but his body was already cold. Somehow my mind transformed the image of Sasuke lying dead into that of my brother. My brother wasn't actually dead, or at least as far as I knew he wasn't. But it didn't change the fact that I always woke to nightmares that he might be.

I was vaguely aware that Kakashi was winning the fight behind me, but most of my mind was stuck in sick fantasies of the ways that my brother might have died. I also could faintly hear the shouting behind me, but I couldn't understand any of it. Instead I was numb to the real world remembering my family that I only knew when I was young.

By the time I turned around all I saw was Zabuza slashing through dozens of enemies only to get to the short man in the back. I could feel the dry tears plastered on my face that made my vision blurry as the demon of the mist died in front of me, but the tears were not for him. Nor were they for anyone who was on the bridge, and for that I felt ashamed.

* * *

/(^_^)/ NARUTO \(^_^)\

* * *

It could have been a few minutes or it could have been several hours, but Sasuke eventually woke up from his false-death. "Hitori?" He questioned.

I did my best to force a smile on my face, "Sasuke." I couldn't manage to put any energy in my voice. I looked at all the needles piercing his body, "We should probably get you fixed up."

Sasuke forced his body up, "How's Naruto? What happened to that guy in the mask."

I sighed, "First, you should stay still. Naruto's fine, and the masked guy is dead."

He sat up even more suddenly, but masked most of the pain he must have felt, "dead! ? how! ? Did Naruto do it! ?"

I shook my head, "Sensei used some jutsu, and Haku – er – the masked kid got in the way." I stood up, "Hey idiot! Get over here!" I called to our favorite blond-haired ninja. He turned, and the minute he saw Sasuke his features lit up.

Before we could celebrate the thugs that Gato must have brought along with him announced that they were going to raid the village to get the pay that Gato could no longer give them. I could tell that Kakashi sensei was worn out after the battle and I wasn't sure what we were going to do when the lot of them rushed forward to get past us to the village when out of nowhere and arrow landed in front of them causing them all to stop in their tracks. We all looked toward where the arrow came from and we saw everyone from the village headed by Inari prepared to fight.

All of us could tell that the thugs were shaken by the sudden army so Naruto decided to pitch in by creating a few shadow clones. Even Kakashi sensei created about a hundred clones. I smirked, I couldn't create shadow clones, but I could create regular clones that looked real. Faced with the sheer force of numbers the thugs were forced to retreat. "Victory!" Inari shouted causing everyone in the crowd to cheer along with him. We all quieted immediately when we saw Kakashi carrying Zabuza and gingerly placing him next to his younger companion. Surprisingly it began to snow while Zabuza was in Kakashi's arms despite the fact that it was definitely not the time of year for snow.

* * *

/(^_^)/ NARUTO \(^_^)\

* * *

The four of us along with the villagers held a short funeral for Zabuza before speedily finishing the bridge. We all smiled brightly as we waved goodbye to the villagers being the first to use the newly completed bridge. We were all ready to go home, but at the same time we knew the memories of this day would forever be etched into hearts.

* * *

**A/N: I apologize if this chapter seems a bit rushed, honestly I want to get to the chunin exams because that's when things get... well... emotional. This chapter was bit emotional to though, and I hope you don't mind that I kind of skipped the whole "Zabuza gains a heart" thing, but I hoped you liked how Hitori reacted to Sasuke's "death". I would greatly appreciate it if you left reviews, they make me giddy :D.**

** Next Chapter: Chunin Exams!**


	5. Chunin Exams: IntroductionWritten Test

**A/N: Okay so I'm lazy after writing this chapter so I'll just thank everyone who followed, reviewed and favorited this like this: Thanks a bunch you guys you make me super happy! I hope you enjoy the first chapter of the chunin exams :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

As soon as we finished reporting to the hokage I left to the training grounds to let out my frustration. During the entire trip back I replayed in my mind how useless I was during the mission, and I finally had a chance to channel my frustrations into something useful: training. I beat relentlessly on a stump of a tree before I remembered something I had been meaning to try out. I focused an excessive amount of chakra in my hand before punching the stump with all the force I could muster. I felt a smile spread across my face when I saw the size of the hole I left in the wood. My suspicions that I had gotten during the tree climbing exercise proved correct. The raw chakra in my fist at least doubled my destructive force, and I could tell that despite the throbbing in my hand it added at least a little bit of padding.

Unfortunately I hadn't thought about controlling my last blow so it, added to other rampant strikes, left me exhausted. I decided to stop by the library on my trip home to pick up books about the uses of chakra beyond basic jutsu. When I at last arrived home I made myself something simple to eat while I read, but made sure I retired early to bed because I had training the next morning.

After the mission instead of our teamwork getting stronger it got even worse, because Naruto would attempt to outdo Sasuke during every future mission which caused him to get into more trouble. As the tensions continued to rise among us team members, sensei and Sasuke left me alone with Naruto. I had half a mind to leave until I saw a block following the idiot. My curiosity got the better of me and I watched it follow Naruto for the short time until Naruto turned around and shouted, "That's the worse disguise I've ever seen!"

The 'rock' spoke, "You saw through my camouflage again! You're slick boss; just what I'd expect from my rival!" That was when three kids came out from their attempt at a disguise and introduced themselves.

"I'm Moegi, the sassiest kunouichi in preschool, check me out!" The orange-haired girl announced before striking a pose.

Then the nerdy kid took his chance, "I love algebra; call me Udon!"

Finally the kid who spoke from underneath the rock spoke, "And I'm the number one ninja in the village, Konohamaru! And when we're all together!" The three began to speak together, "We're the Konohamaru ninja squad!"

This time I didn't hold back… I face-palmed. That was the worst introduction I had ever seen, and Naruto just watched it as if it was normal. As they talked back on forth I noticed the goggles that the three kids were wearing and put the pieces together: these kids idolized Naruto. "WHAT! ?" their scream brought me back to reality. "But you promised you would play ninja with us today!" Konohamaru complained and I burst out laughing.

Naruto turned as if he just noticed I was still there, "Wh-what Hitori?"

I struggled to get a breath between my fits of laughter, "Why would a ninja play ninja?"

Konohamaru looked at me skeptically, "Hey boss who is that girl?" He continued staring at me as finally stopped laughing and just looked at Naruto in disbelief. "Oh I get it boss you're a smooth operator."

"Huh?" Naruto questioned him.

"Don't play dumb I know that she's your…" he stuck out his pinky, "girlfriend."

"You can tell she's pretty into me, huh?"

I glared at Naruto and punched him sending him flying into the fence behind him, "I was going to just leave it alone, but don't spin me into your stupid stories idiot."

Konohamaru looked at me, "What kind of girlfriend are you! ? You're a witch! And you're ugly too!" I looked at the kid with cold eyes before bringing my fist down on his head, too. I started to walk away but stopped dead in my tracks when Konohamaru shouted at me, "When I become hokage then you'll wish you hadn't hit me!"

I turned around to stare at the kid, he must have thought I was going to punch him again because he turned tail and ran the other direction. I almost left him but decided it would be much more fun to torment the kid and ran after him until he collided into a stranger with purple tattoos all over his face. "Did you want something?" he asked with no emotion. Next thing we knew Konohamaru was being lifted by the large blue scarf he had struggling to get out of the boy's grip. "So does this hurt punk?" he asked cruelly.

"Put him down Kankuro, or you know you'll pay for it later." What the blond-haired girl said seemed more like a warning than an order.

"You better take your hands off him right now!" Naruto demanded.

The purple faced boy smiled before ignoring Naruto and addressing his femal companion, "We've got a few minutes before _he _gets here. Let's mess with these punks huh."

That was when Konohamaru started kicking from the air, "Let go of me you jerk!"

"You're feisty. But not for long." Kankuro tightened his grip on the blue scarf he held Konohamaru by which made it too difficult for him to struggle.

"PUT. HIM . DOWN!" Naruto rushed forward to attack the boy but fell backwards without anybody touching him.

"You're a leaf genin too? Looks like your village is full of wimps."

"Alright that's enough." I finally spoke up, "If you've had your fun you can leave."

"You're all annoying." Kankuro looked at us. He moved to punch Konohamaru but was stopped when a pebble hit the hand that was holding Konohamaru. We turned to see Sasuke in a tree with another pebble in his hand.

He tossed the pebble up and down in his hand as he spoke, "You're a long way from home, and you're way out of your league."

"Oh great another wimp to tick me off." Kankuro spoke while glaring at Sasuke.

Sasuke crushed the rock in his hand, "Get lost." He ordered then opened his hand to let the sand from the rock free.

"Hey punk get down here!" Kankuro ordered. "You're the kind of guy I hate the most. All attitude and nothing to back it up." He pulled the large bandaged thing out from behind his back.

"What! ?" The girl beside him exclaimed, "You're gonna use the crow for this! ?"

"Kankuro, back off." The person who spoke this time seemed to show up out of nowhere. He could have been a jounin with how easily he snuck up next to Sasuke. "You're an embarresment to our village."

Kankuro seemed almost scared in front of this other guy, "H-hey Gaara." Then he stuttered trying to find an excuse for fighting with us. "Shut up!" The red-head ordered "Or I'll kill you." Then he turned to Sasuke, "Sorry for any troubles he may have caused." He then seemed to become sand to disappear from the tree and reappear in front of his team. "Let's go; we didn't come here to play games."

As they started to walk away Sasuke jumped down from the tree and addressed them, "Hey you! Identify yourself!"

The girl turned, "Hm, you mean me?" Anyone could tell she was hoping he meant her.

"No, him, the guy with the gourd on his back."

The red-haired boy turned, "My name is Gaara of the desert. I'm curious about you, too. Who are you?"

"I am Sasuke Uchiha."

Naruto broke the intense atmosphere between the two, "Hi there! I bet you're dying to know my name!"

"I couldn't care less."

Then I burst out laughing for a second time. But I stopped when I saw Sasuke walking away. "Hey Sasuke, wait a second."

"What is it?"

I sighed, "I know I was useless during the land of waves mission, and since Kakashi sensei is obviously not doing a great job training us, I want to spar with you."

He seemed to think about it a little before saying, "Fine."

I smiled, "Tomorrow after we're done with whatever mission we get?"

"Alright."

"Thanks."

The next morning we all assembled on our usual bridge, of course Kakashi was late again with another stupid excuse. He walked over to us, "I know this is a bit sudden but I recommended all three of you for the chunin exams. These are the application forms." We all took one. "Since this is all voluntary it's up to each of you, and if you don't feel ready just don't turn it in and you can try again next year. Whoever wants to take the exams sign the application forms and come to room three-oh-one at the academy. It's at three p.m. five days from now."

We didn't end up having a mission that day, but Sasuke still agreed to spar with me. We went to the training ground and stared each other down. With neither one of us moving I decided to make the first move. I rushed forward with speed that Sasuke wasn't expecting and nearly managed to hit him. From his fast dodge Sasuke moved to trip me, but I forced chakra into my foot to jump up quickly, a trick I had stolen from him. Then, from the air, I dived down to try to get a decent hit, but since I couldn't dodge from the air he kicked up and managed to get a blow to my stomach. As soon as his foot struck me I grabbed his leg as tight as I could with one hand, with the other I built up chakra in my fist and managed to deal a crushing blow to his nose.

He was bleeding then, but didn't show any sign of pain. Unlike me who was struggling to breathe. We continued trading blows I imagined in my head as a sort of dance, with each person fighting to take the lead. In the end Sasuke won, but I could tell by the smirk on his face I had gained some semblance of his approval.

Over the course of the five days we noticed foreign ninja flooding into the village. When the day of the exams finally arrived I met with Naruto and Sasuke outside of the academy. When we got to the second floor we noticed a large gathering of genin. I looked at the door and saw 301. A couple of people who were trying to get in were being knocked around by some other kids blocking the door. "We're just thinning out the herd." One of the punks blocking the door sneered.

Sasuke walked up to the two of them, "Real nice speech. Now both of you step aside and let me through. And while you're at it reverse the gen-jutsu we can see through your illusion anyway. We're going to the third floor."

"So you noticed the gen-justu huh?"

"Go ahead, tell them Hitori." Sasuke turned to me. "I'm sure you saw it before anyone else did."

"Yup," I agreed, "From a mile away. This is the second floor of the building."

"Huh, well aren't we the smart ones. So you noticed an illusion. Now let's see you deal with this!" One of the guys moved to kick Sasuke who decided to try and counter with his own kick. With incredible speed a guy with a bowl cut, who had been easily knocked around earlier, got between the two and stopped their attacks.

His teammates walked over to him and a boy with long hair spoke, "Hey, what happened to the plan? I thought you were the one who said to keep a low profile and don't let anyone see our skill level."

"I know but…" He walked over to me, "My name is Rock, Lee. You are Hitori right?" He winked and gave me a thumbs up, "please be my girlfriend. I vow to protect you with my life!"

"Um sorry, but no."

"Why?" It was strange to be confessed to after not caring about such things. Ever since I lost my family all I cared about was making sure it didn't happen again so appearance never even crossed my mind.

"Nothing against you or anything, but I honestly want to concentrate on my ninja training."

When we finally about to turn our applications in Sasuke was challenged by Lee. Naruto got angry and attempted to fight Lee first, but the bushy-browed boy easily knocked the idiot out on the wall. Sasuke was obviously intrigued by the boy and even activated his sharingan against him. Despite that though Lee managed to pretty much beat Sasuke with pure speed. However, just when he was about to a pinwheel pinned his bandages to the wall, and a turtle emerged to scold Lee for using whatever technique he was about to use. What surprised me the most though was that Sasuke didn't seem to be able to catch himself so I ran forward to do it myself. "Do I have start calling you Naruto? You should know better than to rush into a fight like this. Maybe if we had more time, but you were completely unprepared." I scolded.

"Shut up!" He growled.

"Hey guys!" Naruto suddenly shouted while running over to us.

"What?" I asked.

"That weird thing he's talking to is a turtle right?"

"Well, yeah."

"Okay then maybe it means that turtles can be sensei, too."

I sighed, "Why should I care."

The turtle continued scolding Lee and the boy kept apologizing until in poof of smoke a man who looked almost exactly like an older version of Lee appeared on the turtle in a ridiculous pose. "So that's where Lee gets it from." Naruto observed, "Same soup bowl haircut, and even bushier eyebrows."

"Do not insult Gai sensei!" Lee shouted back upon hearing his words, "He is one of the greatest men in the entire world!"

"Well excuse me for not noticing a greatness I was too busy watching him crawl out from underneath a turtle!" Naruto shot back.

"He did not crawl out!"

"Give it a rest Lee." And with just those words from his sensei the boy did indeed calm down. "Now for your punishment…" Gai punched Lee straight in the face, "You little fool!" Then they had an overly dramatic crying session where I urged Naruto and Sasuke to go sign in for the exam.

We finally managed to get to the exam room where Kakashi sensei was waiting to take our form; he also told us that the exam was actually taken in teams, not separately.

When we finally managed to enter the room we were greeted by stares from what must have been at least a couple hundred teenagers. They were silent for about a minute just taking in the sheer number of opponents they had before it was broken by high-pitched squeal, "Sasuke!" A long-haired blonde flung herself at Sasuke and attached herself to his neck. Sasuke glared at her but said nothing while she continuously jabbered on, "Boy you have no idea how much I hoped you'd show up here. Boy I've missed those brooding good looks of yours."

"Is being an idiot something that comes with being a blonde?" I wondered out loud.

"What was that Hitori! ?" Ino got off of Sasuke, "At least I take care of my hair. Your blue hair could look nice, but you obviously don't take care of it."

I shrugged, not like a really cared what I looked like. "Oh it's you guys." I looked up to see Shikamaru, with Choji eating chips next to him of course, behind Ino. "I knew this was gonna be a drag, but I didn't know it would be this lame."

Naruto walked forward, "So all three stooges are here."

"Hey you know what pipsqueak! Oh forget it; you're a waste of time." That was something I never understood about Shikamaru. He was so lazy and never worked for the simplest of things.

"Well well what'd you know." The next voice came from Kiba who walked forward along with his team. "It looks like the whole gang's back together again."

"Oh, hi Naruto." Hinata whispered shyly over Kiba's shoulder. As Naruto acknowledged her greeting she glanced to the ground in what I assumed was embarrassment, but I wasn't sure why.

"You guys too huh. Man everyone's here for this stupid thing." Shikamaru observed bitterly.

"Yup here we all are, the nine rookies." Kiba agreed with a laugh, "This is gonna be fun! At least for those of us good enough to make the cut, right Sasuke?"

"Kiba, careful you don't get over-confident." Sasuke warned.

"Says the guy who just got his butt kicked by a guy in a tight green suit." I muttered quiet enough so that he couldn't hear and glare at me.

"Just wait, we're gonna blow you guys away!" Kiba announced. "We've been training like crazy."

"What'd you think we've been doing; sitting around picking daisies? You don't know what training means!" For once Naruto said something that sounded somewhat intelligent… somewhat.

"D-don't mind Kiba." Hinata said while pushing her fingers together. "I-I'm sure he didn't really mean anything by it."

Choji decided to move closer to Kiba for reasons indiscernible to me, but was stopped when Shino stepped between them. "What'd you want?" Choji asked. Shino looked toward the ground. "What is it?" Choji questioned again while following his gaze to see some sort of beetle.

"Thought maybe you hadn't seen it." Shino answered. "Didn't want you stepping on it."

"Why? You saving it for lunch?" Leave it to Choji to make everything come down to food.

When the tension between us nine had just about reached its maximum a new voice that none of had heard before decided to speak up, "Hey you guys!" We all turned to see another Konoha shinobi with silver hair and glasses walk toward us. "You might wanna try keeping it down. I mean, no offense, but you're the nine rookies right? Fresh out of the academy? I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves. Just cool it, this isn't a class fieldtrip."

"Well who asked you! ? Who are you! ?" Ino asked with her ever-present snotty voice.

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi, but really, look around you." We glanced around to see glares emanating from just about every ninja in the room. "You've made quite an impression." Foreign ninjas and even some Konoha ninjas were looking at us like they were ready to kill us at any moment. "This exam makes everyone tense, and you don't want to rub them the wrong way right now."

Kabuto shook his head, "You can't help it. I mean how could you know how things work; you're just rookies. You remind me of myself a while back."

I raised an eyebrow, "A while back? How many times have you taken the exams?"

"This is my seventh time." He replied sheepishly. When we all looked at him curiously he continued speaking, "Well they're held twice a year, so this will be my fourth year."

"So the rumors about the test being tough are true." Shikamaru grumbled. "Man this is such a drag."

"Hey don't lose hope just yet." Kabuto said while rummaging in his pouch. "Maybe I can help you kids out a little." He pulled out some sort of deck of cards. "With my ninja info cards."

I crossed my arms, "And those would be?"

"It's hard to explain, but these cards have been chakra encoded with everything I've learned over the past four years." He then proceeded to use his chakra to make one of the seemingly blank cards reveal a map of where the genin coming to take the exam came from, and how many. Konoha had a considerably higher number of ninja coming, but I attributed that to where the exam was located in the first place. I also took note that the hidden sound village had a considerably smaller number of people.

"Do those cards of yours have any info on the other candidates… individually?" Sasuke asked after Kabuto finished explaining about the balance of powers.

"They might. Do you have someone special in mind?"

"I might." Sasuke said copying kabuto's way of speaking.

"Well I can't promise my information is complete or perfect, but I've got something on just about everyone, including you guys of course." Kabuto held up a card, "So who is it?"

"Gaara of the Desert, and Rock Lee of the leaf village while you're at it."

I listened just as intently as Sasuke as Kabuto told us first about Lee then about Gaara. We didn't learn much more about Lee than we already knew from him fighting Sasuke. He was extremely proficient with Tai-jutsu, but he couldn't do much else. Gaara, however, was someone to keep an eye on. He had completed a B-rank mission without getting a scratch. A nearly impossible feat seeing in our D-rank turn A-rank mission with Tazuna even Kakashi could barely keep up with everything.

Kabuto pulled his map back out and told us that all of the other villages sent exceptionally powerful ninja, but he wasn't sure about the sound village seeing as it new and small. Having that much new information even Naruto seemed to be falling apart from the pressure. In a few seconds he proved my suspicions false as he made some sort of battle cry and pointed at the other competitors, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna beat every one of ya – believe it!"

Ino ran over to me, "Hey! What's that idiot trying to do! ? Get us killed! ?" I shrugged but I felt the corners of my mouth tug up. Naruto would always be an idiot and I like constants. "Tell you're boyfriend to keep his big trap shut!"

I turned to Ino, "As soon as your boyfriend stops eating all those potato chips." I replied smugly before getting assaulted by more high-pitched screaming in my ears.

"Yeah, I feel a lot better now!" Naruto announced easily. Everyone around us was scolding Naruto while he laughed with satisfaction.

Then the only three ninjas from the hidden sound decided to launch an assault against Kabuto. He managed to dodge every one of their attacks, but somehow his glasses still managed to crack. Then he fell to the floor and began to cough up blood. While Naruto rushed over to help Kabuto everyone else in the room eyed the sound ninjas carefully trying to figure out the trick to the attack.

"Write this on your card: The genin from the sound village will be chunin when this is all over, guaranteed." The dark-haired male ninja sneered.

A poof of smoke appeared at the front of the room, "Alright you baby-faced degenerates, pipe down and listen up!" The voice and attitude was similar to that of a drill-sergeant. As the smoke cleared we saw several ninjas standing in the once clear area. "It's time to begin." Said the man at the front who wore a black trench-coat and had scars on his face. "I'm Ibiki Morino, your proctor, and for this moment. Your. Worst. Enemy… First." He pointed to where we were all standing at the back of the room. "You candidates from the village hidden in the sound, knock it off! Who told you, you could fight! ? You wanna be failed before we've even begun! ?"

"Sorry, it's our first time; I guess we're a little jumpy… sir." The sound-nin with a big fuzz-ball on his back apologized in an obviously insincere way.

Ibiki exhaled through his nose in a way that made him seem amused, "I'll say this once so listen up! There will be no combat between candidates. No attacking each other without the permission of your proctor, and even then the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited. Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately, got it!" Eventually our proctor actually got around to the actual test and giving us actual instructions. Of course the moment it was revealed that it was a written test Naruto wasn't quite as confident as he was before.

All of the rookie nine ended up sitting away from each other excluding Naruto and Hinata who got seated right beside one another. "All eyes face forward!" Ibiki command all of us, "The first exam has a few important rules," he began. "I will not accept any questions so listen carefully." I frowned, I had never heard of giving rules without allowing questions to clarify. "First rule is you are all given ten points at the start. The written exam consists of ten questions and each is worth one point."

"This test is a deduction based test," he continued. "If you get one problem wrong you will be deducted one point. If you get three problems wrong, your points will be reduced to seven." That was a simple enough rule. "Second rule, the pass-fail decision will be determined by your team's total points." It was at that point that I began to panic. Naruto was never any good with written exams, but I was still determined to pass.

"Next rule, the sentinels around the room are they to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating and for every incident they spot the will subtract two points from the culprits score. Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp, and if they catch you five times they'll dismiss you before the tests are even scored. Anyone fool enough to be caught cheating by one of the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here. If you are a ninja, act like a first-rate one. Also, if anyone in a team gets a zero, everyone on that team will fail. The last problem will be given forty five minutes after the exam begins. You have one hour until the end of the exam, begin," He finished.

I flipped over my test and instantly any hopes of passing were washed down the drain. Every single problem was definitely too difficult for Naruto. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised if they were too difficult for almost every genin in the room. Even I couldn't understand some of them. I went through the test figuring the problems that I knew then yawned so I could subtly look backward and see the reflection of other examiners tests in their headbands. I memorized the images in my mind and pieced them together as I laid my head down on my desk. I didn't want to write down the answers too quickly or it would give away my cheating. Instead, I waited around twenty minutes before lifting up my head to look back at my test. Then I spent another five minutes pretending to be puzzled about the answers before I wrote them all down.

After I was done I watched the clock tick the seconds by. I wasn't sure if I wanted time to pass so I could I breathe easier, or if I wanted time to stop to give Naruto more time to get the answers. I couldn't really say time moved normally though; I don't think anyone know how fast time normally goes. Time passed and fifteen minutes until the test ended Ibiki spoke up, "Alright! Listen up! Here's the tenth and final question!," Ibiki announced loudly to the whole room that had considerably less people than when we began. "But before I give you the question, there are some more rules you need to be aware of.

"Very well then rule number one," he began, "Each of you is free to choose not to be given the final question. It's your decision."

"Woah, so what's the catch, let's say we decide not to take the question what happens then?" I recognized the blonde girl who asked the question as the one who was with Gaara. I never actually learned her name.

"If you choos not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers to the other nine you'll get a zero. In other words, you fail. And that means, of course, that both your teammates fail as well. However, if you do accept the question but answer incorrectly you will not only fail, but you be banned from taking the chunin exam ever again!"

After the first hand was raised dozens more followed. I kept my hand in my lap. I could see where Naruto was sitting, and, had I been a nicer person, would have raised my hand for him. But I was determined to see this through to the end, to become a ninja strong enough to reach my own goal, so I couldn't worry about Naruto. When I saw Naruto's hand raised in the air I raged inside. How could he throw away the chunin exams for a title as worthless as hokage? My spirits were instantly raised when he slammed his hand on the table and made a declaration in his idiotic Naruto way.

"Don't underestimate me! I don't quit, and I don't run! You can act tough all you want! You guys aren't going to scare me off! No way! I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life!" He stood up, "I'll still become hokage!"

"This decision could change you're life," Ibiki said. "If you want to quit now's your last chance."

"I never go back on my word. That's my ninja way."

"Well then, I admire your determination." Ibiki addressed us. "then for those remaining there's only one thing left to do, and that's for me to tell you… that you've all passed your first exam."

"So what were those previous nine problems? Are you saying it was all just a waste?" The blonde girl demanded again.

"No, no, not at all. Quite the opposite. The first nine questions had an important over-riding purpose: To test your ability to secretly gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstance." Ibiki informed us. He then launched into a rant about what the nine questions were about: to test if we were able to cheat without being caught. To make sure that any information we gained on an actual mission was correct. Naruto, of course, played like he understood everything.

He then explained the tenth question. He did this by proposing a "hypothetical" mission that seemed near impossible, but the way he explained it seemed like he was talking from experience. After he announced the first test completed and Naruto cheered the window beside Ibiki shattered into a million pieces.

A purple haired woman with a large banner that read: Here comes the second exam's proctor: Anko Mitarashi stood in front of us, "Heads up boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating! I'm your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi! You ready for the second test! ?" She raised a fist in the air, "Good! Then let's go, follow me!" After some discussion between the first and second proctors the sentence that stuck in my head was: "Trust me after I'm done with them more than half will be eliminated."

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**A/N: This was a longer chapter (over 5,000 words!). I just wanted to get the first test over with to get to the forest of death. Next chapter you will get to find out about Hitori's past (gasp!) Also, if anyone's interested, I wrote a quick poem about how Hitori sees the world. It's short and I wrote it in like 5 minutes, but I think it's enjoyable. **

**Next Chapter: The Forest of Death, Hitori's past, and Orochimaru. So look forward to it ;)**


	6. Forest of Death I: Hitori's Past

**A/N: Told you guys I would probably update faster ;) I'm kind of sad that xXCobaltFlameXx was the only one to review, but some of you might just not have gotten around to it or whatever. I'm okay though because I'm happy as long as people are reading it :D This is the chapter where Hitori's name means something so remember Hitori = one person.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

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After the first exam we met up with Kakashi sensei and told him how we did on the first test. Naruto was definitely lying about how well he did, but he was pretty enthusiastic so we didn't really care. Sasuke didn't share much about how well he did, but he did tell Kakashi sensei about his progress with his sharingan. I think sensei might actually have been impressed when I told him how I gathered information. Then again, who could tell when the only thing you could see of his face was an eye. As we each left to go home after the first test Kakashi sensei told us that we were to report to the 44th training ground at seven a.m. for the next test.

I met Naruto and Sasuke on the way to the grounds and we walked the rest of the way together. What we saw when we arrived, apart from the hundreds of ninja, was a fenced in forest with trees that were immensely overgrown. "This is the 44th training zone." Anko told us. "But we call it: The Forest of Death. And soon enough, you'll find out why."

Naruto gaped for a short time before mocking her, "we call it the forest of death, and soon enough you'll find out why." He danced while he sang this. Then he stopped and pointed at her, "Do you worst you can't scare me away! I can handle anything!"

"Looks like we have a tough guy," Anko noted before throwing a kunai that cut Naruto's cheek. Then with remarkable speed she appeared behind Naruto, "You tough enough to handle this? You're not afraid are you?" She cupped Naruto's face in her hands, "Guys like you usually leave your blood all over this forest. Her eyes went serious and she pulled out a kunai. Seconds afterward another one of the examinees hovered over her shoulder. With an abnormally long tongue she grasped a kunai and had it hovering over the one Anko already held. At the sight of the genin I froze. It couldn't be… it just couldn't.

"I was just returning your knife." The creepy genin told her without bringing her tongue back in.

"Why thank you grass ninja." Anko offered with smile. "You know I really recommend you only stand this close behind me if you wish to reach a premature end." She grabbed the kunai and the genin and drew her tongue back behind her lips.

"My pardon. With the sight of blood on your blade slicing through my hair," he gigged, "I'm afraid that I just became a little excited. I meant you no harm." I still stood frozen as the grass ninja walked past me to rejoin her team.

As that event drew to a close Anko gave us each a consent form we had to sign. Despite what the first proctor said about no lethal damage this test had no rules, and we very well may die. Well, I say no rules, but there were a few. It's just that they focused on the scrolls we were going to be given. A short rendition of what the proctor told us was there were two scrolls. We needed to bring both to the tower in the middle of the grounds in five days to pass and we couldn't open the scrolls before we arrived. Also, all of our team needed to survive for us pass.

My team easily signed the forms, that's not to say that we didn't understand the danger, ust that we were all determined to do anything to reach our individual goals that all required power. The booth where we would trade our signed forms in return for a scroll had a curtain surrounding it so no one could see what scrolls the other team received.

We allowed Sasuke to carry the heaven scroll we got because, like it or not, he was the strongest on the team. Then we headed to the 12th gate and waited for them to open and signal the start of the second test.

* * *

/(^_^)/ NARUTO \(^_^)\

* * *

Not long into the test we heard a scream echo throughout the forest reminding us how dangerous the test was. We paused in the clearing we were standing in when Naruto announced he had to go before rushing a little way into the woods. While he was gone Sasuke turned to me, "You can't freeze up if something happens, Hitori."

"Huh?"

"I saw your reaction to the grass ninja. There will be a lot of ninja just like him, so you can't freeze." He insisted.

"That wasn't…" I started before sighing, "nevermind."

That was when Naruto returned, "Aw man that was a lot! I could write my whole name with it." My eyes were drawn to missing cut on his cheek, then to his shuriken holster that was on the left instead of the right. I prided myself on my observation skills, and I could tell that it wasn't Naruto. Sasuke also noticed because it didn't take him long to fly into action by kicking the fake Naruto into a tree. "Wh-what was that for! ? What are you doing! ?" the fake demanded. Sasuke was relentless, and continued to go after him.

I grinned, "Who d'ya think you're fooling? Even Naruto can do a better transformation jutsu!" I shouted up to the ninja.

Sasuke was the next one to speak, "Talk! What have you done with Naruto?"

With a poof of smoke 'Naruto' changed into a strange-looking rain ninja. "Alright you got me, so what! I'm still gonna take your scroll so hand it over, or else! So, which one of you has it?"

"Ha! Like it matters! You couldn't get it from either one of us!" I taunted the enemy ninja.

"Fine then, I guess I'll have to take you both out!" He announced before lurching into action. Sasuke quickly jumped into the air and even faster he morphed his hands into the signs for the phoenix flower jutsu. The enemy hopped just out of each of the four fireballs before he and Sasuke met head-on with their kunai. When the enemy bounded across the trees Sasuke and I followed him and saw Naruto tied up in another clearing on the ground. I freed him while Sasuke kept the rain ninja preoccupied.

Naruto thanked me and we both headed to where Sasuke and the other ninja were still going at each other with kunai. Naruto threw a kunai which Sasuke quickly avoided while I dashed to where the enemy ninja dodge. After building up a sufficient amount of chakra I threw my fist at the ninja and hit him square in the jaw.

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/(^_^)/ NARUTO \(^_^)\

* * *

After realizing he was outmatched the other genin retreated into the trees. We went the other direction to gain more distance before stopping and sitting in a circle. "That proves that we can't just trust appearances." Sasuke stated, "We have to come up with a way of proving that each of us is who we say we are, and not some imposter using a transformation jutsu."

"What's the plan?" I asked.

"We need a password. Something only three of us know." Sasuke looked at us, "I'm only going to say this once. The question is: When does a ninja strike? And the response is: A ninja waits until the time is right. When the enemy sleeps and drops his guard. When his weapons lie forgotten in the stillness of the night. That is the moment for a ninja to strike. Got it?"

"Got it." I confirmed, but still looked at him questioningly. He knew as well as I did that Naruto would never remember that.

Or at least he did when Naruto asked, "You got one a little shorter?"

"No Naruto, that's it." Sasuke said with exasperation.

"Fine fine, I got it."

We had just finished our little meeting when something flew and cut Naruto's other cheek. Shortly following a large gust of wind separated the three of us. We stared at each other and asked at the same time, "When does a ninja strike." Then we answered in sync as well, "A ninja waits until the time is right. When the enemy sleeps and drops his guard. When his weapons lie forgotten in the stillness of the night. That is the moment for a ninja to strike."

"Hey what's up! ?" We turned to see Naruto rushing towards us, "Are you guys okay?"

"Naruto, when does a ninja strike?" I asked.

With a grin Naruto answered the password easily. I narrowed my eyes before pulling out a kunai at the exact moment that Sasuke threw a kunai at Naruto. He dodged, "What was that! ? You could have killed me!"

"Gotta hand it to you, you're quicker than the last one!" Sasuke stated. "There was no way Naruto could memorize all that. Party's over, come on out whoever you are!"

The grin that appeared on Naruto's face was a grin that sent shivers down my spine. It was something that should never have appeared on that idiots face. It was when the tongue slipped past his lips however when it became obvious which genin was masquerading as Naruto, "Aren't we the clever one?" the voice was that of the grass ninja, not Naruto who she was disguised as.

In a poof of smoke the second fake Naruto that day changed into an enemy ninja. "Tell me, if your teammate is really that dim-witted, why did you come up with a password he'd never be able to remember."

"You see, it wasn't so much for Naruto as it was for anyone who happened to be nearby that might be trying to eavesdrop on us." Sasuke explained. "You stumbled right into the trap I set up."

"I'm impressed," The grass nin practically hissed, "You certainly haven't dropped you guard have you? This promises to be very entertaining." She flicked her tongue lazily. She reached behind her and pulled out an earth scroll, "You would love to get your hand on our earth scroll wouldn't you? It would go so nicely with your heaven scroll. She brought the scroll to her mouth and coiled her tongue around it allowing her to swallow it whole. "When this is all over one of us will have both scrolls and the other will be dead."

The killer intent that the ninja gave off was so powerful that I saw my life pass before my eyes and I was brought to my knees by fear alone. It was then that my head allowed me to admit who this person was. Not just some grass ninja but man who destroyed my life.

"H-Hitori?" Sasuke questioned next to me.

I had tears pouring down my face, "Y-you bastard." I barely managed to get out. "How can you be here?"

He looked startled at my question, but his face quickly morphed into the grin that I had etched into my memory from the time I six. "Hitori. He moved forward to caress my cheek, just like he did when I was small. "One person all alone." I forced my legs to stand and using will alone I punched the man in front of me. He chuckled in his feminine voice, "I'll make this quick." He told us while he pulled out a couple of kunai. "I expected you to be more of a challenge." I clenched my eyes shut, awaiting death.

Instead of pain I felt myself flying through the air. I opened my eyes cautiously right as Sasuke was setting me down on a tree branch. I saw the deep gash on his leg and held back a gasp. We sat on the tree watching for any sign of _him _to come back. "Sasuke!" I shouted as gigantic snake came toward us.

The snake moved toward Sasuke so he threw shuriken at it while desperately shouting, "Stay away!" His fear was obvious. The snake fell back onto the tree branch and its skin began to crack. We watched in horror as the real snake man emerged from its skin. He slithered up the trunk of the tree toward Sasuke who was visibly panicking. He had nearly made it to my teammate when several shuriken and kunai lodged in the tree in front of him.

"Looks like I came just in time!" We heard Naruto's voice. "Oh and by the way, what was that password again?"

"Naruto! Get out of here!" Sasuke yelled up to our late squad member. "What are you thinking? You don't know what you're up against! Hurry! Go now, while you still can!"

"So Naruto you managed to escape from my friend, well done." I looked at the man who tore apart my life and drew a kunai. I breathed in and out, attempting to distance myself from my fear before throwing the knife at him. He caught it with his tongue. "Don't worry Hitori I haven't forgotten about you. Your family is doing well. Especially that brother of yours."

I screeched. "Go away go away go away! It's not real!" I crumpled into a ball on the branch I stood on and sobbed. Even though I couldn't see anything with my eyes I could remember his real face from when I was small. The snake-like eyes that matched his cruel grin. I escaped into my own world muttering, "it's not real." Over and over again. For a little while I could faintly hear the fight between Naruto and Sasuke in the background, but eventually everything faded and the only thing I was aware of was my own tears and sobs.

* * *

/(^_^)/ NARUTO \(^_^)\

* * *

Maybe it was some instinct to save a teammate I'm not sure, but something brought me away from my tears right as Naruto was falling from a height that he wouldn't be able to survive. I threw a kunai to catch him before turning back to Sasuke. He and I both had a breakdown from the fear we experienced and neither one of us had fully recovered from it. I lurched forward from my branch to stand beside Sasuke. "I don't know about you but…" I turned away from my teammate to stare down my deepest fear, "I don't want to be a coward."

Sasuke awakened the sharingan next to me and leaped into action. Despite my words I could only watch as two people who were incredibly out of my league traded blows. First I thought that Sasuke had the upper-hand, but after a substitution he was flung around like a ragdoll. However, I realized afterwards he was setting up a trap using ninja-wires. He used the wires to pin the snake bastard to a tree so he couldn't move when he used his dragon flame jutsu. Sasuke thought that had ended it, and was exhausted, but when I rushed to stand by Sasuke I eyed the tree carefully.

"What mastery of the sharingan at so young an age." Midway through the sentence his voice changed from that of the grass-nin to his real one. "You're a true Uchiha after all. Yes you'll do nicely." He revealed a sound insignia that he wore on his headband. "You are definitely his brother. If anything your eyes are even keener than Itachi's.

"Who are you and what do you want!" Sasuke demanded while I stared. His fake skin had partially burnt off I could see one of his true-eyes. Those evil eyes.

"My name is Orochimaru, but as to what I want that will have to wait until we meet again." He pulled out a heaven scroll which he must have gotten while I was out. "Which won't happen until you finish this test with the best score of all." The heaven scroll in his hand began to burn with a green flame. "To do that you'll have to beat the hidden sound ninjas who serve me."

"Orochimaru!" The name sounded like poison on my lips, "I swear I will kill you to bring back my family!"

He laughed his cruel laugh, "I can assure that won't happen." He turned to Sasuke, "We will meet again someday, until then." He formed a hand-sign I had never seen before his neck grew impossibly long and his mouth attached to Sasuke's neck like a vampire. When released his bite along with the puncture holes a strange symbol appeared on the skin.

While Orochimaru sunk into the tree Sasuke howled in pain before collapsing into some sort of coma.

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**A/N: Okay so how many of you saw that coming? Hitori's family taken away by the sadistic snake I mean. Of course this doesn't clear up all of the mystery, such as who Hitori's family is, but that won't come for a long time. Anyway, that's just something I could see Orochimaru doing. Leaving her there because her name means one person. **

**Next Chapter: How will Hitori fare without her teammates?**


	7. Forest of Death II: Getting the Scrolls

**A/N: I am so so so so so so so so sorry that it took so long to update my inspiration was in an accident and ended up in a coma. Special thanks to pizzafan123 and FEYT for asking me to update that made me super happy! Also thanks to xXCobaltFlameXx her asking me for advice made me think about where I want to go with Hitori. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter ;)**

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I was exhausted by the end of the day and as much as I tried I could not fight of the sleep that called to me from under the tree root where we rested. I almost thought of it as a good thing that the I had constant nightmares about the snake that attacked us kept me up because I was more likely to see whoever came. Every noise shook fear into my body I even threw kunai at sounds that were made by the gentle breezes that flowed through bushes. While I was still extremely jumpy a squirrel ran through the bushes and on instinct my hand moved again to throw the kunai. Not long after that I was finally calm enough to make my way around the camp to gather all of the kunai, but was interrupted by the genin with sound headbands. I took a defensive stance in front of Naruto and Sasuke while the boy with dark hair spoke of them spoke, "Hey, do you mind waking up Sasuke? We wanna fight him."

I glared, "You guys are the little cowards that follow Orochimaru around like ducklings. I can't beat him I'll admit… But I won't mind knocking around his little guard dogs."

"Why you little!" I had obviously angered the one who spoke first, and it seemed like he was going to rush me until the one with the large metal arm stuck said arm in front of him.

"Calm down Zaku." He looked at me with that weird tilt to his head, "You're stupid girl. You should have woken up Sasuke while you had the chance." He turned back to his impatient friend then to the other girl, "kill her."

I focused my chakra into my hands and hovered them over my ears. I knew it wouldn't do much, but it was a technique I had been working on for other purposes. The metal armed guy swung his fist at me and I easily dodged. He was of course smug because he thought he had gotten me so I smiled, "You know people often called me the smartest of the rookie genin. Believe it or not I'm more than book smart. When you attacked KabutoI analyzed your technique and the effects it had on him. He threw up, clutched his ears, and was off balance… all signs of a damaged ear drum." I was somewhat surprised they didn't attack me; they were obviously curious about how I was unaffected by the attack. "I did a lot of studying about gen-jutsu before and after the academy. The hardest type of genjustu to avoid are the ones that utilize sound. As such I did my best to come up with a way to stop such an attack in the middle of battle. As an experiment I tried to use chakra to cover my ears, because in some ways chakra can act as a physical barrier. Unfortunately it wasn't complete enough for me to use against gen-jutsu, but it was perfect to defend myself from your vibrations because it simply doesn't hit that hard." I continued to grin smugly at the three standing in front of me despite the fact that I knew that there was still a small effect technique, and I wouldn't be able to use the trick a second time.

The three glared at me and the one I remembered as Zaku rushed toward me with his arms straight toward me and palms up allowing me to see the holes in his hands. I quickly used the substitution jutsu to appear behind him and kick him toward a tree. I sensed his other teammate moving toward me but I knew there was no time to move so I began to move my hands towards my ears. Before they had even reached there I heard a shout of "Leaf spinning whirlwind!" Right in front of me stood Lee in his full green jumpsuit glory.

'Metal-arm' as I've decided to nickname him picked himself off the ground while Zaku tore himself from the tree. "Who are you?"

"I am the handsome green beast of the leaf village: Rock Lee" He turned to me, "Are you alright Hitori?"

I snorted, "I'm fine, you should be asking about them."

"I'll just take both of you out!" Zaku snarled before rushing toward us again.

I prepared myself for an attack while talking to Lee, "We need to keep them apart because the dark haired one listens to metal-arm, but without him he is brash."

"Got it!" He assured me as we both lurched into action. I took toward Zaku while Lee dealt with metal-arm. From the corner of my eye I could see that he was handling it well, but I forced my gaze back to Zaku. I relied on simple maneuvers like substitution jutsu to keep myself ahead of him; it might not have worked if he wasn't so impatient and reckless.

I almost got overconfident and forgot about the girl until I sensed the needles heading toward me. I threw shuriken to stop the senbon and quickly pulled my attention back to the man that was using holes in his arms to send pressurized air at me. It wasn't as powerful as metal-arm's technique, but it was frustrating that and shuriken or kunai I used he just blew back at me. I switched tactics from attempting long range to throwing hard punches assisted by chakra.

I had managed to get a couple hits on him while at the same time I got bombarded by needles from his female teammate. After smashing Zaku into a tree I turned to fight his female partner just in time to hear Lee shout, "Secondary Lotus!"

I whipped my head around to see Lee in the air with his bandages wrapped metal-arm. I grinned after realizing Lee had him taken care of until I saw a trail of upturned earth leading to where Lee's landing point was. "Shit!" I cursed rushing back over the source. Zaku smiled until I gave him one last punch that put him out for good. Unfortunately so was Lee after that last attack, meaning I would have to deal with that last two on my own.

Lee continued to struggle to move, but I knew that his last attack took out of him. The problem was I had no idea how to fight metal-arm. My ears were still ringing slightly from his first attack, and I knew my little trick wouldn't work a second time. Then there was the girl with all of her needles. I decided to start with a bluff. I pulled chakra covered hands up to my ears because as far as metal-arm knew my trick worked. Then I decided to go after the girl hoping that using her as a shield would work. Unfortunately metal-arm was faster than me and his sound technique hit me full force. I collapsed while clutching my ears willing the pain to go away. The pain was so severe it caused me to throw up the little contents in my stomach. I forced myself up and held a kunai in my hand, but I wasn't able to move without stumbling around because my balance was horribly off. I couldn't hear anything and it was becoming obvious that I had lost this fight.

That was when Sasuke woke up with an evil look in his eyes and tattoos that covered half his body. Once he saw the condition Lee and I were in and the enemies that surrounded me he immediately attacked metal-arm. Even once metal-arm was in no condition to fight Sasuke continuously pounded him until I grabbed his arm and whimpered please hoping that I was able to say it properly while deaf. It's true that I didn't like Orochimaru or anyone who followed him and the sound ninjas deserved it, but I didn't want Sasuke to be like him. Thankfully I got through to him, so metal-arm left us their earth scroll and retreated letting the girl take Zaku with them. Then I saw Neji come down from a tree and take Lee. I attempted to put on a smile in thanks, but it was difficult with the pain.

* * *

**/(^o^)/ NARUTO \(^o^)\**

* * *

A little while later Naruto woke up and was probably fussing about what happened while he was asleep, but I wasn't sure with my ears being how they were, and it was right before I passed out from chakra exhaustion as well.

When I woke up my hearing was considerably better, though still not perfect, and the boys were cooking fish. When they were done they handed me one. "I'm gonna get water." Sasuke told us when he was finished eating. He left the scroll for Naruto and I to protect when he left.

Once he was out of sight Naruto grabbed the scroll. "Hey Hitori." He whispered. "I know how to do this without having to fight anyone."

"What are you talking about idiot?"

"Look." He dumped out his pouch and scrolls came tumbling out.

"You cannot _seriously _be thinking what I think you're thinking." I voiced in disbelief.

"We could change one of these to look exactly like the heaven scroll"

"No! Nevermind that you _can't _do it… It's just wrong!"

"But if we don't do anything we're never gonna make it!" He shouted.

"We can get through this exam without cheating and we will! Besides, it probably has some sort of jutsu to know if we opened it." I said pointedly before snatching the scroll from Naruto. Despite what I said though I definitely had my doubts. Especially after Orochimaru burnt what could have been the last heaven scroll.

Naruto pouted while we waited for Sasuke to return and Kabuto walked through the trees with casual smile on his face. "Fancy seeing you guys here."

I looked at him warily, "Well seeing as everyone taking the test in the forest not really."

He laughed, "I guess that's true."

That was when Sasuke came back with the water, "Kabuto. What are you doing here?" It was hard to identify the emotion in his voice, but I guessed it was suspicion.

"Don't worry. I'm not here to take the earth scroll."

"No. So you're also after the heaven scroll."

"Not quite." He reached into his pouch and pulled out two scrolls, "You see I already have both." He put the scrolls back, "Anyway, I have to go meet up with my teammates."

"Wait!" Sasuke demanded once he turned his back to us. "The scrolls… I'll fight you for them."

"What! Sasuke!" Naruto immediately protested.

"Shut up!" Sasuke cut him off. "I don't have time to play the nice guy."

"He's right Naruto. Kabuto's a good guy but we need the scrolls."

"You serious?" Sasuke nodded in response to Kabuto's question. Kabuto laughed, "No you're not."

"What?" Naruto asked.

"If you were serious you would have struck while my back was turned. Why challenge me openly to a fight?" Sasuke sort of growled in response. "Actually I admire you for it. So instead I'll tell you how you can get a scroll. While we move of course because that fire will attract not only wild animals, but the competition as well."

* * *

**/(^o^)/ NARUTO \(^o^)\**

* * *

We left the fire as it was and started to head toward the tower where Kabuto was supposed to meet up with his teammates. Along the way we strategized about how to get our team a heaven scroll. First, we knew that there would most likely be people at the tower going to turn in the scrolls they already obtained. Second, there would be other people who were also planning to take advantage of that fact. And lastly, there would collectors who would be looking for extra scrolls for a variety of reasons. "I finally understand why you took us with you." Sasuke told him once Kabuto finished telling us the dangers of going after a scroll near the tower. "You frightened."

"Yeah I am." Kabuto answered honestly.

Before long the tower finally came into view. "We must be careful from here on out." Sasuke told us."

"Alright let's go!" Naruto shouted. Right after he said that a rustling in the trees alerted us to the possibility of an enemy ninja. Naruto threw a kunai into the shrubbery and we heard the squish of it connecting into something living. We parted the bushes to find his kunai lodged in a gigantic centipede.

"Naruto." Kabuto began, "We should refrain from making unnecessary noises that would draw in enemy ninja."

We began to move more cautiously after that making sure we were heading toward the tower. In the back of my mind something didn't seem quite right so I made sure to pay close attention to all of my surroundings. When they seemed to start to repeat themselves I signaled the rest of my team, "Guys, I think we're in a genjutsu."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

First I pointed to the tower, "Sure we've been moving slowly, but we should be closer than this to the tower by now." Then I pointed into the shrubbery, "Behind there I am almost positive you will find a giant centipede with a kunai stuck into its head." Then I brought my arms back down, "And lastly, I am a genjutsu type ninja and I can feel the genjutsu messing with my mind, and I don't like it."

"They were planning to take advantage of our worries and have us walk around in circles." Kabuto observed, "It's a good thing you're so astute Hitori."

"Their original plan was probably to tire us out before striking…" Sasuke reasoned. "I wonder how they will continue realizing that plan didn't work."

Once Sasuke finished speaking black-clad ninjas came crawling out of the trees like cockroaches out of a cardboard box. Naruto, realizing he was finally going to get the fight he had been waiting for, charged into one of them giving a solid punch to one of them. Where his fist connected the body turned into goo and Naruto went right through it. From the goo another body with a kunai in its hand turned to attack Naruto. Sasuke activated his sharingan to join in before quickly throwing shuriken into the offending arm. The shuriken failed to do any damage but it did pull the ninja's attention away from Naruto and toward Sasuke. Even after the ninja threw a kunai at him Sasuke stood frozen until Kabuto threw himself on top of Sasuke getting a cut on the arm in the process.

"Surrender your scrolls." Demanded all of ninjas giving an echoing effect.

"I don't get it!" Naruto shouted without turning from the ninjas. "Since Kabuto got injured that means they're shadow clones. But they disappear when you hit them! So what are we dealing with? Some kind of gen-jutsu?"

"Yeah, they're all illusions." Sasuke told us.

"How can they be illusions if Kabuto really got cut! ?" Naruto demanded.

"The real enemies are probably hiding and synchronizing their attacks with their illusions." I guessed. "But while being bombarded like this we can't find them. It would tire us out and they could just take us out one-by-one."

"Then what are we supposed to do!" Naruto shouted.

"Right now all we can do is hold our ground and fend off their attacks." Kabuto replied.

"This is going to get us anywhere." Naruto said while putting his hands in a familiar handsign.

"No, don't." Kabuto told him, "by fighting these things and using up all of our chakra you're doing just what these guys want."

Naruto kept his hands up, "If we eliminate all of the illusions anybody who is casting them won't be able to hurl kunai at us without revealing where they're hiding! I'll show 'em two can play at this game!" As soon as he was done talking he created several clones. The rest of us used the smoke that the jutsu created to hide in the forest, and he created clones of us. I was surprised that Naruto was able to come up with such a brilliant plan.

It was sunrise by the time 'we' were tired and the enemy ninjas revealed themselves to finish us off. It turned out that it was the same rain ninja that tried to take our scroll before. When we emerged from the forest they were obviously surprised. Even more surprisingly Naruto was still able to take out the three of them on his own after creating all of the clones.

Sasuke ended up needing help back to the tower because the mark on the neck that Orochimaru gave him was causing him considerable pain. Once we made it to the tower Kabuto left with his team and we went up to the tower. Reading the message on the wall we came to the conclusion that it was time to open the scrolls. Once doing so Iruka was summoned and he explained that the message was telling us to train both our bodies and minds to become truly powerful ninja. We passed the second exam and were now onto the third one with smiles on our faces.

* * *

**A/N: Hopefully Hitori's fight against the sound-nins made up for her lack of power against Orochimaru. Next chapter will be the third exam preliminaries where we get to see Hitori in a one-on-one fight... Although, I don't know if I will be able to put that in next chapter with all the diffferent fights... We'll see. Anyway, I hope this will tide you over for a while.  
**


	8. Preliminaries I

**A/N: I really should be working on my other fanfiction, but this one was so much fun soo... I hope you enjoy this chapter :)**

**Disclaimer: I only own Hitori.**

* * *

Without a chance to rest after talking to Iruka we were called to an arena-like room. Across two opposite walls there were balconies presumably to watch whatever fights were there. Once we were in the room all of us genin got in lines facing a large group of ninjas of chunin rank or and above. I assumed it was only the passing genins since there were considerably less of us than who went into the forest. My theory was proven correct when Anko stepped forward and shouted loudly as always, "First of all congratulations on finishing the second exam!" I glanced around the room to see who else had passed. Including us five teams from Konoha passed and I recognized them all, though I only knew Kabuto on his team. For someone who failed six times it was kind of odd that he was away from his team so often. I clenched my jaw for a second when I saw that Orochimaru's cronies had also passed; it might have been my imagination but I think I saw Zaku glaring at me. The only other team to pass was Gaara's team meaning only seven teams passed… twenty-one people out of seventy-eight.

"Woah, everybody's here. Old man Hokage, Iruka sensei, and even bushy-brow… It looks like absolutely nobody got left out this time." Naruto whispered back to Sasuke and I.

Sasuke clutched his neck, "I don't have a very good feeling about this."

"Alright now pay attention!" Anko interrupted everybody's thoughts. "Lord hokage is going to explain the third exam to you, you better listen carefully maggots!" She then turned to face said old man, "Lord hokage, they're all yours."

The old man cleared his throat, "First before I tell you what the third exam entails I want to explain something about the test itself." Honestly I mostly ignored the old man after he said that. I was tired of his lectures about absolutely everything seeing as the man had never actually given me a reason to care about what he was saying. That doesn't mean I didn't catch snippets about him saying that the test was a replacement for war, I just didn't care that much. Even as people started asking questions about whatever he was talking about all I could think was, 'is it really that interesting?'

I continued ignoring the old man until another ninja appeared in front of him and interrupted him. I resisted the urge to cheer as the hokage let the other guy, I think he said his name was Hayate, speak, that was until he actually spoke and was always stopping to cough every other word… He might have been more annoying than the hokage, "Nice to meet you all…" cough cough, "There's something I would like all of you." Cough cough. "to do before the third exam." Cough cough. So yeah, you get my point the guy needed medical attention more than the people who were just fighting. "We have to have a preliminary exam before we can move on to the real one." He told us.

"Preliminary! ?" Shikamaru burst out, "What's this all about?"

"Well you see, the first and second exams might have been too easy." Hayate explained, "The fact is we never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the rules of the chunin exams a preliminary exam can be held at any time to reduce the number of remaining candidates. During the third exam there will be an audience so we need to reduce the number of candidates to make things run more smoothly. So if any of you feel like you're not in top physical condition you need to…" He began to cough as if to emphasize the 'top physical condition' part. "Sorry about that… As I was saying any of you who don't feel up to this now's the time for you to bow out. The preliminaries will be starting immediately." After some grumbling the proctor added something else in, "Oh yeah, the winners will be determined by one-on-one combat: sudden death. So like I said, if anyone doesn't feel up to it now's your chance."

Right after he said that Sasuke made grunting sound as if he was in pain and grabbed his neck. "Sasuke," I whispered, "I know you're not about to back out, but as soon as your match is over have Kakashi sensei look at that."

"Fine." He grumbled.

After that Kabuto raised his hand, "Okay, you got me, I'm out."

"But, Kabuto…" Naruto looked like he was betrayed.

The proctor looked at his clipboard, "Kabuto Yakushi of the leaf village right? Okay you can go on and step back."

"gotcha." He confirmed before heading toward the doors.

"Wait a second Kabuto!" Naruto demanded, "You can't just quit! What's going on! ?"

"Naruto, I'm sorry but my body's just too beat up, I can't handle it. The fact is ever since orientation and that dust up with the sound village team I've had no hearing at all in my left ear." I raised an eyebrow at that. My encounter with the sound-nins was more recent but after some rest in the forest my ears felt fine. I turned to look at Lee, he looked alright too.

"May I assume there are no more people who wish to retire?" Hayate coughed. "It will be a one-on-one match. Now that we have exactly twenty people, we will have ten matches… and the winners will be able to advance to the Third Exam. There are no rules. You will fight until the other person dies, is knocked out or admits defeat."

"I will be the judge to decide when it's over. I may stop you to prevent any unnecessary deaths. The thing that will hold your destiny…"

He motioned behind him where a wall began to move showing a blank screen. "Without further ado, I will now display the names for the first match."

Everyone looked up to the screen. The first two names were:

**Yoroi Akado**

**Vs**

**Sasuke Uchiha**

"Knock this guy out quickly Sasuke… Don't give that mark a chance to get worse." I warned

"I know."

"Those whose names have been drawn, come forward." Hayate spoke, "Everyone else can watch from the balcony."

I watched the match carefully next to Kakashi sensei and Naruto. Even as though they started out with shuriken the mark on Sasuke's shoulder was obviously causing him pain. Even when we thought Sasuke had Yoroi pinned down he did some sort of strange technique that appeared to drain Sasuke's strength. "Come on Sasuke! Get up!" I shouted leaning dangerously over the balcony.

Whether it was my shouting or his own Sasuke jumped into a crouch, but was assaulted by Kabuto's teammate quickly after. Yoroi held Sasuke down by his forehead. At first Sasuke grabbed his arm trying to pull away but the longer Yoroi held him the weaker his pushing seemed to be until one of his hands dropped limply to his side. "What kind of jutsu is that sensei?" I asked quickly.

"I'm not sure. It has to be some kind of kekkei genkai… He seems to be stealing Sasuke's chakra."

"How can he do that?" Naruto asked.

"Like I said, it's a kekkei genkai, which doesn't follow the normal rules of jutsu."

Naruto and I turned back to the battle where Sasuke's other arm was dropping. After a few more seconds he finally found the strength to kick the chakra stealing creep off of him and across the room. Yoroi charged him again but this time Sasuke maneuvered himself away from the blows.

"Hey Sasuke!" Naruto yelled from beside me, "Come on man, you're gonna let this dude walk all over you! Stop messing around and get it in gear!" Sasuke looked over toward Naruto his eyes widened for a fraction of a second before turning back to the charging Yoroi with some new found resolve.

He weaved around all of his blows before getting below him and kicking him up into the air in and identical fashion that Lee did to him before the first exam. Still mirroring Lee's technique he jumped into the masked genin's shadow. Just when I thought he had the upper hand the strange mark turned a fiery orange and creeped up half of his face. Somehow he was able to force the mark to go back to his neck and fade to black as he finished off his technique that now differed from Lee's. He put his hand on Yoroi's back and used it to spin himself around to kick the genin. However Kabuto's teammate easily blocked the attack with his arm. Sasuke didn't let that stop him though because he span himself around again and brought his fist to Yoroi's chest. With Sasuke suddenly above Yoroi he continued a relentless assault with his fists and his feet bringing Yoroi crashing into the ground and out for the count, "Lion's Barrage!" I assumed what Sasuke shouted was the name of the technique he just created.

With Sasuke declared winner Yoroi went off to the infirmary while Sasuke went with Kakashi sensei, presumably to do something with the mark. I then turned to watch the screen shuffle around names. "Hey Hitori." I turned to face Naruto as he whispered to me, "maybe I'm just going crazy, but did you see any weird marks on Sasuke's neck during the fight?"

I recalled Sasuke calling me away to ask me not to tell Naruto about the mark, "You're right." I said.

"Huh?"

"You are definitely going crazy." I stated before turning back to the screen that now had the next two names:

**Zaku Abumi**

**Vs**

**Shino Aburame**

I didn't pay much attention during this round. I knew both of the competitors' fighting style so all that really mattered was who won. Instead I walked over to Lee. "How are your ears doing?"

"They are fine. I am much more worried about yours Hitori." He replied earnestly.

I grinned at him, "Are you kidding? Mine healed after a few hours rest." It didn't happen quite that fast, but then, I always had a tendency to exaggerate.

He gave me a thumbs up, "I will definitely never allow that to happen to you again!"

I smiled at him, "Don't treat me like a damsel in distress. I'm a ninja, too."

"You are definitely strong, Hitori! So youthful!"

I would have replied, but the match was over quickly with Shino being declared the winner. I watched with morbid curiosity at Zaku's detached arms being placed next to him on the stretcher. Then I turned to watch the next two names be selected on the screen. Before they could appear Kakashi poofed behind us. "Hi." He greeted us nonchalantly.

"How's Sasuke?" I asked quickly.

"He's fine and sleeping soundly in the infirmary." He replied.

I breathed a quick sigh of relief before turning back to the screen to see the next two names.

**Misumi Tsurugi**

**Vs.**

**Kankuro**

I was curious about this match and was hoping to learn about Kankuro especially because of the run-in with him before the exams. This match was over even faster than the previous one. To explain it simply, Kankuro tricked Misumi into thinking that his puppet was him and launched a surprise attack once Misumi's guard was down. I was quickly learning that Kabuto had strange teammates. Which begged the question: why did they leave him with the scrolls? The question tugged on me while I watched the screen to see the next competitors.

**Hitori Anaka**

**Vs.**

**Ino Yamanaka**

My grin could not possibly have been wider. Not only had I gotten lucky enough to face someone from my village that I already knew the techniques of. It was Ino who didn't bother hiding the fact that she wasn't really interested in training. I jumped over the railings ready to take her down. As soon as the proctor announced the start of the battle I launched forward and struck Ino with a chakra covered hand. She easily was sent flying but she picked herself back up. She pulled out a kunai and threw it toward me. For the briefest second I thought of how funny it would be to use the replacement jutsu by replacing myself with the proctor but immediately realized I didn't have that kind of skill. Instead I pulled out my own kunai and countered hers.

I pulled out shuriken from each of my hands and threw them at the same time. They were both headed toward opposite sides of her while I was coming toward the front of her. I also noted that I blocked her passage behind when she had skidded so far during the opening punch and was up against the wall. Her only escaped was up so I built up chakra in feet as well as my hands. As soon as she was in the air I had followed even stronger with my momentum adding as much force as my strength did. My punch sent her flying even further up while I landed gracefully back on the ground. Her fall was much clumsier because she was obviously more tired than I was. Before waiting for her to be recovered enough to continue I leapt forward again. She struggled to dodge each of my blows and when I connected she was knocked out cold.

When Hayate declared me the winner I walked back up to my teammates with my arms up triumphantly. "Hitori great job!" Naruto cheered.

"Yes, it was a youthful battle." Lee agreed in his strange speech pattern.

"Very good." Kakashi added.

"Thank you thank you. You're too much." I told them before adding a sweeping bow. Naruto laughed at my antics while Kakashi did his strange eye smile.

I stopped my dramatics at sight of the next competitors

**Tenten**

**Vs.**

**Temari**

I didn't know who Tenten was, but I figured she would have to be strong to be on Lee's team. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see that strength in her fight against Temari. She couldn't have possibly have had a worse opponent for her techniques. Temari's wind jutsus were able to deflect every single one of the many weapons she possessed and before long Tenten was being thrown of a very large fan into Lee's waiting arms. So far it seemed like the sand-nins would all be formidable opponents and we hadn't even seen Gaara fight yet. Somehow he frightened me most.

Naruto and Lee began to fight about whose turn it was to fight next. However, when the names were revealed they both groaned.

**Shikamaru Nara**

**Vs.**

**Kin Tsuchi**

Shikamaru lazily walked down the steps to meet his opponent. I was hoping to see another sand ninja beat down easily, but with Shikamaru the opponent I didn't expect it to happen. I'll admit I didn't know much about Shikamaru, but I did know that he was always sleeping in class.

I wasn't surprised by the quick match. I was much more surprised by the winner. Maybe it was wrong to think someone from your village would lose, but still, I didn't expect it. Especially after he fell to the ground from her bell tricks. I also discovered that Shikamaru was extremely intelligent. He too used the wall to his advantage, but he used it as a weapon rather than to block a path of escape. I grinned to myself. All of Orochimaru's puppets were falling apart. One by one.

After hearing Naruto's cheers I turned to see his name with Kiba's on the large screen. "Sasuke and I already won our matches so you better not embaress us Naruto." I teased.

"Are you kidding? Kiba won't know what hit him!" He replied.

Kiba was obviously confident; he was even leaving Akamaru on the side. "Sorry Kiba, Naruto's gotten stronger." I said to myself with a grin never leaving my face. It crossed my mind that I never expected to be confident in Naruto but I quickly waved the thought off. He really was better than the class clown he was in the academy days.

Kiba's first technique made him look even more beastly than he usually did. Then he pounced toward Naruto who didn't see it in time to dodge. Naruto was sent flying. "This little guy's going to be out for a while." Kiba looked toward Hayate, "You can call the match." Everybody else believed it was over and didn't hide it, but I didn't dare let my grin drop. I already said I believed in Naruto and that wasn't about to change.

As Kiba walked back toward Akamaru Naruto picked himself up, "Don't ever underestimate me!" Naruto shouted to Kiba. After more words were exchanged Kiba brought Akamaru in to fight with him. I groaned when Kiba pulled out smoke grenades… I really wanted to see this match. Akamaru waited outside the smoke while I heard Naruto getting beat up within the cloud. As soon as Naruto tried to escape Akamaru bit him and pushed him back in. Kiba jumped out and as the smoke cleared we saw Naruto lying down with Akamaru sitting beside him.

Kiba cheered and Akamaru rushed to greet him. Or, that's what we thought was happening until the dog jumped up and bit his owner. Kiba didn't even retaliate against his dog; he just stared in disbelief. Until the dog talked in Naruto's voice, "Surprise! Gotcha!" Naruto transformed back and Kiba shook him off.

"Where's Akamaru! ?" Kiba turned around looking for him.

The clone that had been lying in the smoke stood up with Akamaru in his hands, "He's right here!"

Kiba reached into his pouch, "Naruto, if I were you I'd let Akamaru go." He flipped something into Akamaru's mouth, and soon the dog became much more aggressive and his white fur was dyed a deep red. He kicked himself out of the clone's arm and the clone poofed away. Then Kiba took another one and ate it himself. Then Kiba crouched down to allow Akamaru on his back. "Beast mimicry." Kiba's jutsu transformed Akamaru into perfect copy of himself. "Man-Beast Clones!" The two launched into a barrage of attacks against Naruto that he could only barely dodge, and I found myself biting my lip subconsciously. I did my best to stay confident in Naruto's victory, but it became more difficult once Kiba and Akamaru used a jutsu that made them spin so rapidly that the spinning force alone made them as powerful as a drill. They hit Naruto and he was flung into the air with no way to break his fall. He landed almost head first.

For the second time almost the entire arena thought Kiba had won until Naruto's shaky voice was heard, "I will become hokage." He insisted as he struggled to stand up. If it weren't for that sentence I would be grinning like a fool all over again. Instead I'm pretty sure I was pouting. On some level I respected that he wouldn't give up on his beliefs. However, I had it engraved into my mind that the hokage was a horrible person who didn't need that level of commitment.

"I got news for ya!" I heard Kiba. "I'm gonna be hokage!"

I resisted screaming and instead turned to Kakashi sensei, "Why is it that Naruto can't have a single fight where he doesn't say that?" Instead of answering me he gave me his one-eyed smile, so I turned back to the match and sulked on the railing. "You're too weak to be hokage!" Kiba told Naruto and laughed.

I got just a little bit angry at that remark and picked my head of the railing, "Guess what Kiba!" I shouted, "The hokage may be a stupid position that I don't understand why anyone would want, but Naruto can damn well get it if he wants!" The whole arena turned to look at me so I crossed my arms, "Hmph!" While I said that Naruto picked himself off the ground again and turned to look at me. He was obviously surprised by my outburst so I looked at him with another of my now signature grins, "Go get him Naruto!"

"Right!" he agreed before turning back to Kiba, "She's right. You can forget about being hokage." Naruto got hit by another one of their spinning techniques before Kiba threw more smoke bombs. They continued to use their spinning techniques but when they were obscured by smoke I couldn't tell what was going on. When the smoke cleared I could tell that Naruto had gotten hit while in the smoke cloud, but he was still standing and ready to make a retort to Kiba's remarks. In response Kiba threw more smoke bombs and continued to use their spinning technique.

This time when the smoke cleared there were three Kiba's standing in the ring. I was shocked when Kiba actually threw a punch at one of the Kiba's. "I can smell ya kid!" Kiba declared. When the injured Kiba poofed I expected to see Naruto lying there, but instead it was Akamaru. In retaliation he punched the other Kiba which was also revealed to be Akamaru. While Kiba's back was turned Naruto transformed back and kicked Kiba from behind.

Kiba was definitely shaken up about punching his own ally, but he quickly calmed himself down and pulled shuriken from his pouch. Naruto announced that he had a new move prepared, but Kiba wasn't planning to allow him to reveal it. He threw the shuriken he had been holding making Naruto quickly jump around to dodge each one. Meanwhile Kiba was charging toward him the whole time so when he got there he slammed into Naruto and pushed him across the arena. Kiba didn't stop there. Using his extroidinary speed he appeared right where Naruto skidded to a stop and punched him again, this time knocking Naruto of his feet. As Naruto got back up Kiba charged him again and Naruto still couldn't dodge. When Kiba charged in again Naruto grabbed him and flipped him over his should.

Unfortunately that didn't stop Kiba, and he continued to knock Naruto around like a ragdoll. For the third time this match we thought Naruto was done for and for the third time Naruto got up. He began to prepare chakra for his new technique, but Kiba was still determined to stop it. In a flash he was behind Naruto, but just when he was about to strike Naruto farted. Kiba immediately clutched his nose and I burst into laughter at what I thought was Naruto's new technique. "Th-that wasn't a-a technique." I could barely get the words out through my laughter, and I wasn't sure anyone could even understand me.

"That wasn't the super-secret killer move!" Naruto shouted at me before putting his hands back together in a familiar sign, "This is! Shadow clone jutsu!" He created four clones and the five of them surrounded Kiba. One of them punched him down, then three others kicked him into the air while the fifth, most likely real, Naruto jumped onto another Naruto's back for a boost into the air. Once there he kicked Kiba's head down and smashed his face into the ground, "Uzumaki's barrage!" I blinked. It seemed very similar to Sasuke's technique against Yoroi. Unlike Naruto, Kiba wasn't able to get up so Naruto was finally declared the winner.

On his way back Naruto got some sort of ointment from Hinata. "Great job Naruto!" I congratulated before patting him roughly on the back. Of course, after such a match it caused him to fall to the ground while I laughed at him. "Don't ever make me talk about the hokage that way ever again… got it?" I demanded while looming over him.

"G-got it." He confirmed warily.

"Good." I smiled. "All three of us passed." I cheered before looking back at the screen hoping for another exciting match.

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**A/N: Okay, I'll admit I'm not the best at fight scenes. And truthfully this wasn't a whole lot of fun to write because there isn't a whole lot of places where I can really change the story. I apologize if I didn't write the scenes well, but I figure everybody has already seen these fights in the anime anyway, so I didn't spend a whole lot of time editing them. I've discovered I need more words for grin so I'll probably look up synonyms for that before I write the next chapter... Until then I hope you liked this chapter and if so please review cuz they make my day :D  
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	9. Preliminaries II

**A/N: Sorry it's been so long but my laptop died and it is so boring to rewrite things I can't change... I hope you enjoy the chapter though ^_^**

**Disclaimer: I only own Hitori**

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**Hinata Hyuga**

**Vs.**

**Neji Hyuga**

It was strange seeing two of the same name on the board. Hinata walked down looking more than slightly apprehensive while Neji had a stoic face that could rival Sasuke's. When the two met in the middle Neji was the first to speak, "I never thought we would have to face each other like this."

"Nor I, brother." Hinata replied.

"Back up three spaces. I can tell they're related with the whole eye thing, but actual siblings?" I turned to Kakashi.

"They're both decended from the Hyuga clan, one of the most honorable families in the hidden leaf village, not actually brother and sister. It was Lee who explained that there was bad blood between the main and branch families of the Hyuga.

"Before we begin a word of advice." I looked back at them as Neji began to talk, "Hinata, withdraw now! You know you were never meant to be a ninja. You're too kind and gentle. You seek harmony and avoid conflict. You allow yourself to be easily swayed by others." Hinata turned her head to face the ground. "Admit it, you have no confidence. You feel inferior to everyone else here. It would've been better for you to simply remain a genin, but to register for the chunin exams you need a team of three people. You never even wanted to take part in these exams, but Shino and Kiba did and you couldn't bear to let your teammates down. Could you! ?"

"N-no! You're wrong!" Hinata shouted in a moment of confidence. "You're wrong. I wanted… I had to find out… I did it because I wanted to see if I could change."

"Hinata, you are the pampered offspring of the Hyuga's main branch."

"Wh- What?" Hinata looked back at her cousin.

"People can't change no matter how hard they try! They can't run away from their true nature. A failure will always be a failure." Naruto and I were both getting fed up with this guy's speech. How could this guy be on Lee's team? "People are judged by their true nature. That is why we have an elite and why there are outcasts. We can change our physical appearance and prove our skills with training and studying, but ultimately we are judged by what we cannot change. What can't be changed must be endured. We are who we are Hinata, and we must live with it. Just as I must live with the fact that you born into the elite of our clan while I am from a lesser branch. I understand these things because I see the world clearly with my byakkugan. Despite your brave words what you're really thinking is that you'd like to run. Run as far away from here as you can."

"No! You're wrong!" Hinata protested again, "You're wrong about me!"

Neji put his hands together in an unfamiliar handsign, "Byakkugan!" Around his eyes his veins popped and his Hinata face revealed all of her fear from him doing that one thing. Neji picked apart everyone of Hinata's movements and by Hinata's reactions I could only assume he was right about everything.

Both Naruto and I were angry with everything that Neji said but Naruto spoke first, "That does it!" The two Hyugas looked up at him. "Who gave you the right to tell her what she can or can't be! ? Come on Hinata, show this guy he's wrong!" When she didn't reply Naruto got angrier, "Hinata! Are you just gonna stand there and take that! ? Do something, you're driving me crazy!"

"Yeah Hinata! Don't let anyone push you around!" I shouted once Naruto was done.

Hinata didn't reply. Instead she face Neji again with a newfound strength.

Neji looked at her in disbelief, "If you don't forfeit the match you know what will happen."

Hinata's response was quickly form handsigns, "Byakkugan!" She assumed a fighting stance I didn't recognize. "Defend yourself, my brother!"

Neji mirrored her, "Very well then."

They lurched forward attacking in a way that was difficult to follow. Lee and Gai explained how their battle-style was different from anyone else's. As a result I couldn't tell whether or not their attacks took any effect or how much. Suddenly there was a blow that quieted the entire arena. No one could tell who was hit as the Hyugas stood motionless with their arms outstretched toward each other's chests. The silence was broken by Hinata's bloody cough. Neji seemed to think the battle was over, but Hinata didn't back down.

Neji easily stopped her next attack and did a simple blow to her arm. Then he held her arm and pulled her sleeve back. "You mean, all this time?" Hinata struggled to get the words out through her panting.

"That's right, I could see your chakra points this whole time." Neji told her with sneer.

While Kakashi explained the chakra points and the incredibility of Neji being able to target them Neji pushed Hinata violently away. We all turned back to fight. Neji tried again to get Hinata to quit while she was down on her knees dripping blood.

"I-I… I never. Go back…" She struggled to stand while she spoke, "On… My word." She finally stood up and looked at her cousin, "Because that too is my nindo: My ninja way." She looked up at us and smiled before turning her determined face back to Neji. Before she could make her move she began to cough again and clutch her chest. Despite this Neji gave her cruel look and shifted back into a battle position.

Naruto leaned over the railings, "Go Hinata! You can do it!"

She was horribly out-matched, and she could no longer use her chakra after Neji's attacks, but… Her nindo is what I always thought was important. You can't go back on your word. So I leaned over with Naruto, "Take this guy down!" Hinata looked at us again before turning back to Neji and rushing forward.

After another series of trading blows Neji hit her in the chest again. As the proctor began to declare Neji the winner Naruto spoke up, "No! Don't stop this match!"

After Naruto finished speaking a few seconds later we saw Hinata struggling to stand once again. She was barely standing and clutching her chest, but she was standing. Hinata said something to Neji and he rushed forward with anger. The proctor rushed in to stop him, but Kakashi, Gai, and Kurenai ended up jumping in to stop him as well.

After he was stopped Hinata dropped to the ground and began to cough up blood in much larger quantities. I jumped down with Naruto and Lee hoping to figure out what was wrong.

"Hey you two losers!" Neji called over and Naruto and I turned to look at him with glares on our faces, "I have two pieces of advice for you. First, if you intend to call yourselves shinobi stop the stupid cheering of yours… It's disgraceful. And second, once a failure always a failure. You can't change that."

"We'll just see about that!" Naruto told him.

I crossed my arms and intensified my glare, "I'm going to take you down in round three."

When Neji smirked Naruto rushed in to fight him but was stopped by Lee's arm. "Naruto, I get where you are coming from, believe me, but the rules say all fighting must be done officially in a match. The loser beating the gifted genious through sheer willpower. Now wouldn't that make for an exciting match? Even if I am the one who is going to have to fight Neji. Of course if you ended up fighting Neji that is fine, too."

"Alright fine you win Lee." Naruto was obviously not happy to have to wait for his match.

Hinata coughed again so Kurenai quickly called in the medics to take care of Hinata. I was angry, so angry that family could do this to each other. So I turned to Lee. "That guy is definitely not a genius." I couldn't stand the atmosphere any longer or Neji's sick satisfaction at his cousin's pain so I walked back up the balcony. I ignored Naruto's speech and watched the screen blankly.

**Gaara**

**Vs.**

**Rock Lee**

I looked toward Lee, "Careful, this guy'll be tough."

He gave me thumbs up and smile, "Don't worry Hitori! I have the power of youth on my side!"

I smiled, "Go get him!"

Lee jumped over the railing ready to fight. When they began Lee didn't hesitate to rush forward, but his foot was blocked by a wall of… sand? Suddenly Gaara of the Sand made sense. I always thought it was because of his village, but apparently it was more than that. Gaara didn't move a finger while Lee continuously failed to hit him. Not only did he defend himself with the sand but he also used it to attack Lee.

After a series of futile attacks Lee jumped on top of the statue at one end of the arena. After receiving the OK from Gai he took his weights off. At first I wondered how a few weights would affect the fight, but all made sense after the huge smash on the ground. Afterwards Lee was exponentially faster. Nobody could keep up with his movements anymore, least of all Gaara. I could see the shock on Temari's face from across the room when Lee hit Gaara. After a successful hit from Lee from where we were it looked like Gaara's face was falling off. He lifted his head to reveal a demonic grin on his face and I shivered.

"It's like a shell made of sand." Kakashi observed. I saw it more like armor; there wasn't a mark on Gaara despite the fact that anybody else would be covered in bruises after that beat down. I watched the sand meld into his skin again and his face went back to the neutral look he normally had. Lee looked toward us and Gai gave him a firm nod.

Lee began to unwrap his bandages before lurching toward Gaara once again. He dashed around Gaara even faster than before so that only clouds of dust were left. I recognized the attack immediately after seeing it in action before and my suspicions were only confirmed once he kicked Gaara into air. Unfortunately Gaara's sand armor must've made him heavier because it took Lee multiple kicks to get him into the air. The sand tried to follow them into the air but it wasn't fast enough. Once he was high enough into the air Lee's bandages wrapped around Gaara's body. Lee turned himself around with Gaara before spinning wrappedly into the hard ground shouting, "Primary Lotus!". He expertly jumped away after impact, but I could see him panting heavily.

The proctor moved over to check Gaara but everybody in the stands was sure it was over. At least until the sand shell in the crater began to crumble in on itself. "No way…" I muttered to myself as Gaara appeared behind Lee in a waterfall of sand.

The sand began to assault Lee again but this time Lee didn't have the strength to dodge, or even stand. The assault continued and it became obvious that Gaara was only playing with Lee despite the fact that he was helpless. Even after Lee found the strength to move it was only for short bursts and he could barely dodge the sand. I bit my lip to while watching before I leaned over the railings, "Pull it together Lee! You can beat this guy!"

"Your kid could never beat Gaara." I turned to see Kankuro. "I pity the kid, Gaara will just toy with him until he begs for mercy."

"Well then," Gai's voice boomed,"Gaara's in for a long match because that will never happen. Lee doesn't know how to give up." Just then another wave of sand crashed into Lee and my breath caught in my throat. _Come on… You can do this. _Realizing thoughts alone weren't going to reach Lee I leaned over the railings again.

"Fight back, Lee!" I shouted before turning to Kankuro. "If Lee won't give up neither will I." I told him confidently. "Gaara's going down." I gave him a thumbs down for good measure before turning back to fight. He was still getting knocked around by the sand, but I didn't let myself lose my confidence. I already said I believed him and it was the truth. Lee was strong and he would get back up. All at once I saw Lee harden his stance and he brought his speed back up. His moves were still sloppy but he could dodge the sand. Lee had a smile on his face while his moves became more fluid. "I knew Lee could do it."

"That's right! And now it's Gaara's turn to run." Gai said strongly beside me. "The leaf village lotus blooms twice." This simple sentence made Kakashi scold Gai for teaching Lee a forbidden jutsu, the hidden lotus. They explained the jutsu and the strains it had on the body and I immediately understood why Kakashi didn't approve of teaching it to a genin. However, knowing Lee I understood why Gai would want to teach him such a move.

Right after the conversation I saw this jutsu in action. Lee unlocked the gates that the jounins beside me were talking about and his skin turned red from the strain on his muscles. I couldn't see for long though because he lurched into action. I was convinced Le was actually going to win this time as Gaara's sand armor. Once again Lee left Gaara in a crater, but this time we knew he was really there. It still wasn't enough, though. Gaara's gourd turned into sand and cushioned his fall; it reminded me of the fight with Zaku and the sand team.

From the crater Gaara sent his sand against Lee who was defenseless again. Lee did his best to run away but was in too much pain. The sand wrapped around his leg and arm and tightened. Lee screamed and I could hear the shattering of bones. Despite the fact that Gaara was clearly the winner at this point he continued to send the sand toward Lee. That was when Gai had to step in and make Gaara leave. Even though Gaara was declared the winner and his leg was definitely broken Lee stood up again intending to continue the fight. From Kakashi's explanation of the hidden lotus I knew he shouldn't be able to stand up again.

Gai hugged Lee and then laid him on the ground. I wanted desperately to go speak to him, but I knew doing so would only make it worse. His fight was commendable, but I could tell him that after he was ready to fight again.

People cleaned up the arena the best they could and the last fighters were called down. It was Choji against the bandage sand ninja whose name I learned was Dosu. It was a quick fight that I didn't pay much attention to. In the end Dosu won just like suspected. As soon as said match was complete all of the winning contenders gathered in the destroyed Arena.

There they explained the rules of the final exam and matched us up for our one-on-one fights. It was:

Naruto vs. Neji

Sasuke vs. Gaara

Kankuro vs. Shino

Temari vs. Shikamaru

Dosu vs me

I smiled at the second chance to take Dosu down. As soon as the old man (hokage) finished explaining everything I headed to the hospital to see Sasuke and hopefully Kakashi to learn something new for next month.

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**A/N: So yup... that's the end of the preliminaries. Please review it means a lot ^_^ Oh, and Hitori will be learning something interesting next chapter in preparation for the final exam... It'll be lots of fun ;)**


	10. Between Exams

**A/N: Would you look at that, I can actually make a quick update XD Hope you like it**

**Disclaimer: I only own Hitori**

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After Kakashi refused to train me, in favor of training Sasuke I might add, I found myself walking to a training ground in the woods. There I met with Kurenai. I bowed, "Thank you for agreeing to train me Kurenai sensei."

She laughed, "You don't have to be so polite. You're a bright young girl so I'm delighted." I raised my head and smiled as she continued to talk, "Shino will be joining us, too. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all." Just as I said that Shino emerged quietly from the trees. I held my hand out to him, "Guess we'll be training together." He just stared at my hand so I withdrew. _So much for being polite…_ Normally I wouldn't be so formal with anyone but Kakashi said I should at least try so I did.

After seeing our awkward exchange Kurenai decided to explain how she wanted us to train. From morning til afternoon I would have training with Shino like Kurenai originally said, but in the evening Shino's father would train him personally which is when Kurenai could train me one-on-one as well.

While with Shino I mostly sparred and the fights were entirely silent for a quite a while. In fact it took him three days to say anything. "Your observation skills are excellent." Naturally I beamed at the praise, but my smile vanished when he added, "But you forget them too easily in a fight." It's true that I was angry with him, but I also knew he was right. Normally I could easily spot genjutsu, but when fighting with Zaku I had completely forgotten about his female companion. Then when watching Lee I forgot about Zaku.

Still I couldn't let the comment go, "You have no fighting strength without your bugs." Not the best comeback, but true.

Whether or not he was offended I couldn't be sure, but we spent the rest of the spar pointing out each other's weaknesses. When we finally stopped for lunch we had something that resembled a conversation although most of it was about bugs because it's Shino's favorite topic. Then we sparred for another hour before Shino left to train with his father.

From then I trained personally with Kurenai. I learned on the first day why Kakashi had asked Kurenai to train me, she was a genjutsu specialist. There are five different ways people use genjutsu. Sight is one of the most common ones because then the opponent looks at you is caught in the genjutsu. Sound tends to involve a musical instrument and specific songs. Taste and smell tend to be ones more commonly used in interrogation or espionage missions. Then, one of the rarest forms, is touch. It is so rare because most genjutsu users specialize in the mind and fight from afar. However, with my hands on fighting style we decided that it would make the most sense.

While training with Kurenai I discovered another reason why it was so rare. Genjutsu is a specific kind of jutsu and requires considerable of concentration. My close combat fighting style required a lot of thinking on my feet which is much harder while trying to maintain my chakra in the perfect way that will give the illusion I wanted it to. Trying to learn to incorporate this into my fighting style took its toll but despite the strain it put on my body I stayed up after training to do my normal research.

With my busy schedule I completely lost track of what was going on with the rest of team 7. Instead I had to satisfy any needs for human interaction with Kurenai and Shino. It was somewhat harder trying to talk to Shino because it seemed the only thing he was interested in was bugs. After much pestering, however, I concluded he actually did care about people; he just wasn't sure how to interact with them.

He truly cared for his teammates to the point where sometimes I think I learned more about them than Shino himself. Before I knew it I was laughing at Shino while he was complaining about Kiba's ways of practicing with Akamaru. After I was introduced to many of his bugs. It was strange to me that he cared so much about them to give each of them a name but I decided that it was just like him.

It was a lot of work, but by the end of the month I had perfected my genjutsu so we decided to take the day before the exams off. Surprisingly, after learning that I have no family of my own, Shino invited me to have dinner with his family. His mother was delighted that he had any friends over while his father, much like Shino himself, was silent. It was Shino's mother that carried the conversation but she was good at making it sound natural so I assumed she was used to it. Sometime during dinner I realized that it was the closest I'd been to a family dinner since Orochimaru. For once it didn't make me angry. Shino was the first friend I had that still had a family and it made me happy to see that there were still good things in life, so I giggled as Shino's mom told Shino and his dad that they shouldn't wear their jackets at the table.

I thanked them for the meal then left for the library. For the past month I had been studying genjutsu to help with my jutsu, but this time I wanted to study other techniques that I had seen the genins use. Though for once in my life I left the library early to get a good nights sleep. I was ready for the final exams.

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**A/N: I've been wanting to do this chapter for a while. I mean, come on, both Shino and genjutsu are under-appreciated so here they are in the same chapter :D As such, Hitori is a genjutsu type and she is friends with Shino so he will show up more, too. Please review, I truly love your reviews even if they're simple.**


	11. The Finals

**A/N: Sorry it's been so long guys... Everytime I went to write this chapter I ended up listening to Three Days Grace instead but here it is!**

**Disclaimer: I only own Hitori**

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I gathered in the outdoor arena with all of the rest of the genin who passed. I noticed immediately that two people hadn't showed up. I was annoyed. Firstly, if Sasuke didn't show up for the exams I was prepared to knock some sense into him, and Kakashi too because he was training him for the exam. Secondly, I was looking forward to a rematch against Dosu to prove that I didn't need Sasuke to protect me and as Orochimaru's little duckling he deserved everything I had prepared for him. Instead I was seeded for going after Temari and Shikamaru. Dammit.

The first match was Naruto against Neji so the rest of us cleared the arena and headed to the balcony. I sulked on the balcony while watching Naruto's match and Shino must have noticed because he came up to me, "What's wrong?"

I looked toward him, "I can't beat up the person I really want to because he's AWOL and I can't fight Neji the other person I want to fight because Naruto's about to beat the crap out of him."

Shino gave me a look that was equivalent to my raising of an eyebrow, "Why do you want to fight Dosu?"

"Because he's a bastard duckling."

I could tell Shino was confused but he didn't ask, instead he turned back to the match, "You are confident in Naruto."

I grinned, "If there's one thing I can count on is Naruto to win a fight when he's horribly outmatched."

"Hmm," Shino seemed much more invested in the match after that. Seeing that Shino was done talking I turned back to the match. Just as I predicted Naruto managed a comeback victory making a couple of huge holes in the process.

It was supposed to be Sasuke's match after that but he was still nowhere to be seen. The proctor told us to just move on to the next match and I could tell by Shino's slight change of posture he was excited. I could also see his utter disappointment when Kankuro forfeited. I pat his back, "You'll get to fight me next, so it'll be okay."

His almost indiscernible pout lifted slightly and the proctor called for the next contestants. Shikamaru didn't seem very interested in the fight but as he leaned over the railings Naruto pushed him over. I observed this one closely. Temari's 'strategy' was mostly about swinging her very large fan around and kicking up dust. I often couldn't see what was going on… not that it mattered with how still they both stood. Temari spent the majority of the time staying just outside the range of Shikamaru's shadow. Meanwhile he was crouched in the shade of the arena walls.

It soon became obvious that when it came to raw skill that Temari had Shikamaru beat. However, Shikamaru made up for this is with cunning and intelligence. It took a while (an understatement) but Shikamaru eventually had Temari in his shadow. Unfortunately for him it wasn't enough… he didn't have the chakra to contain her. He gave up… just like that.

"Temari is the winner… The next match shall begin in five minutes unless Temari is prepared to go now." He looked at Temari who looked up at me.

"Bring it on!"

I smiled and jumped down to the arena, "Anytime."

When we were in the arena standing face to face the proctor spoke again, "The match will now begin."

I didn't waste a second in rushing forward, chakra covering my fists. Temari easily dodged while moving her fan. The wind came almost instantly; I only had time to grit my teeth and take the barrage of cuts. I was forced well back but came rushing forward as soon as I got my footing back. She swung her giant fan again and the gust of wind sent me flying while cutting me at the same time. I only needed to hit her once, but she was incredibly difficult to get close to.

I jumped forward again, this time paying close attention to when she would swing her fan so I could dodge. Right after she swung her fan I observed the arena and leapt forward. Again and again I made her dance backwards away from me so she wouldn't see where she was headed until finally, she narrowly avoided running herself into a tree. While her focus was on dodging that I took one more dive that she couldn't avoid. Not that she didn't try but my fist went straight past her fan into her face.

I jumped back and grinned as she sat motionlessly in a gen-jutsu. I knew that she would probably have training on how to get out of a gen-jutsu so I took her fan away and plunged a kunai into her leg. I could have killed her, but it didn't matter because by the time she was out of the gen-jutsu she couldn't stand or even swing her fan with it in my hands.

I stood a good distance away from her as she came to and toppled over as she attempted to stand. It quickly became apparent that she wasn't going to give up even if I was obviously the winner and she forced her legs to carry her. Understanding this I rushed forward with chakra covering my fist once again and cracked her head against a tree, probably giving her a concussion. She crumbled into an unconscious heap and I was declared the winner.

I headed back up to stands where the rest of the genin were. When the next match wasn't called for the entire crowd started shouting for them to start the next match already… unfortunately Sasuke still hadn't shown up. I couldn't help but notice the glare that Kankuro was aiming at me. Naruto was complaining so I hit him on the back, "Don't worry, Sasuke'll never forfeit."

"I know that!" He grumbled back at me. "He just wants to look cool!"

Just as he said that Sasuke really did show up with Kakashi in the center of the arena surrounded by swirling leaves. I grinned as Kakashi made one of his signature excuses before heading to the stands.

"Ha! So you decided to show up, I was beginning to think you were too afraid to face me!" Naruto shouted down to him.

"So you won your match, Naruto."

"Of course! Hitori did too!"

I smirked, "And I'll take both of you down and rise to the top!"

Kakashi headed up to the stands while Gaara walked past us. I could feel his killer intent oozing out of him until he was well past us. Once Gaara was standing face to face with Sasuke I nudged Naruto, "Wanna go find out what took them so long?"

"How?"

"Kakashi's up there… Let's talk to him."

"Yeah!"

I looked over to Shino, "Wanna come with?"

He nodded without saying a word so I dragged the two of them with me. To get to the stands we walked past a hallway that had to bloodied bodies lying motionless that brought back bad memories. The bodies morphed into my mother and father. There were only two bodies… Where was the third… my brother. I went back to that night…

"_Lord Orochimaru, there's another one." _

_A face… Sickly pale skin with purple eye makeup. "What's your name?" The voice… That voice is bad._

"_Hitori." My voice was no more than a whisper._

_A chilling laugh, "Little Hitori all alone." His hands were in an unfamiliar hand sign. Pain... My vision went black then… I could only hear his laugh followed by, "Remember me, I'll be back for you."_

Shino's hand on my head brought me back to reality.

"Hitori, are you alright?" I turned to Naruto and forced a smile.

"Yeah I'm fine." I took a chance of a quick glance at the mutilated bodies. "We should tell Kakashi sensei."

Naruto's eyes widened as if remembering something, "We should get Shikamaru."

I looked at him, "Why? What if something happens while we wasted time getting him?"

"Trust me, this is important!"

"I'll get him." I turned to Shino, "You two head towards your sensei and I'll send Shikamaru after you. If anything happens to Sasuke I'll also be right there."

"Thanks Shino." Naruto and I said at the same time before continuing towards the stands. Shikamaru did eventually catch up to us after we were already telling Kakashi sensei about what we saw. Kakashi insisted that everything was fine, but we only agreed with him after we saw Sasuke using Chidori. Sasuke pierced through Gaara's defense and made him bleed. Gaara seemed to barely comprehend what was going on anymore and he had a crazed smile on his face.

While I was paying attention to this feathers floated from the sky. I immediately recognized that it was genjutsu and released it around me. Kakashi then ordered me to wake up Naruto and Shikamaru to head after Sasuke with a dog, Pakkun, he summoned. I did as he said without asking questions; I had to resist beating Shikamaru half to death when I discovered he had been faking sleep. Pakkun and I did our best to explain to Naruto what was going on while he was asleep.

We hadn't been moving long when Pakkun told us we were being followed.

"How many?" Shikamaru was quick to ask.

"9… No 10… Chunin or Jounin in rank."

After a little debate it was decided that Shikamaru would stay behind to ambush them. "Be careful lazy." I told him. He simply waved off my concern while he stopped and drifted back. We continued on toward Sasuke.

A few minutes later Pakkun told us that there was a fight in front of us. He could smell several non-humans. Curiously I asked, "could it be bugs?"

"Yeah, that would fit."

"It's Shino." I told them. "But he's fighting somebody else."

"What should we do?" Naruto asked.

I thought for half a second, "He can handle whoever's out there." Honestly I had never beat him in any of our practice matches but I wasn't about to admit that. Following Pakkun's advice we went around their battle and toward Sasuke.

When we did arrive Sasuke was paralyzed on a tree branch with Gaara coming straight for him. Naruto thought fast and kicked the monster-like ninja away. I leapt next to Sasuke and saw that the mark had taken over half his skin. "Naruto, keep Gaara away!" I shouted, "I'll take care of Sasuke!"

"Okay, but who's this guy?" He asked while pointing at Gaara.

"Idiot! That _is _Gaara!" I sent a glare at Gaara, "If you can't take care of him I will!"

The red-head looked at me, "your eyes, they are like mine. You seek power, and revenge against those who made you alone."

I resisted flinching at his words. He was right, I wanted revenge and power but were my eyes really like his? His eyes that reminded me of Orochimaru? Regardless, I said something else, "I have enough power to defeat you!"

He laughed cruelly, "You could never kill me, as long as there are people to kill in this world I will never disappear!" His words sent chills into my bones.

Gaara lurched toward Sasuke shouting, "First I will kill Sasuke, then I will kill you!" I grabbed Sasuke and jumped to another tree.

"Naruto! Pay attention!" I looked back at Sasuke, "I'm going to put you under a gen-jutsu." I told him.

"No!" He protested.

I was taken aback, "Why not? It would make you much more comfortable."

"No gen-jutsu." He was struggling just to say that but I agreed. I turned back to Naruto, "I need to get Sasuke back to the village, but there's no way Gaara's going to let us!" I almost missed Gaara lunging toward us again, but I didn't have time to move Sasuke out of the way this time. Instead I dashed in front of him but was pushed out of the way and pinned against a tree. Black dotted my vision and I passed out while Naruto and Gaara talked.

I woke up in the hospital alone. I tried to convince myself that it was normal and I was used to it but somehow I had grown used to having my team by my side. I sat up slowly as a nurse came in. "Oh you're awake." I wanted to leave but she insisted on checking me over until she finally deemed me fit. I listened without interest to her ramblings about being careful because I had a concussion and bruised ribs until she finally told me that Naruto and Sasuke were both in the hospital.

I went to visit Sasuke first and discovered Naruto and Kakashi were already there. I could tell by all the bandages Naruto was supposed to be in his own room. They all had dismal looks on their faces so I finally asked, "what's going on?"

Naruto looked at me, "Old man Hokage is dead."

"That old man…" I knew immediately I wasn't as sad as I should have been, "how?"

Naruto tightened his fists and I could see that he drew blood, "Orochimaru."

Nothing more was said. Each of sat in somber silence only to hear our own thoughts. _That stupid old man. If he had just… He could have killed him before all this and now he just let himself get killed. _I knew somewhere that it was really the third's fault; I just needed someone to blame. The funeral was a few days later and it rained as if the sky was crying. However, as the funeral ended the came back out as if signaling a new beginning. I would still do everything in my power to kill Orochimaru, but now it wasn't only for me but for everyone in the village.

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**A/N: So yeah, not a whole lot of change in this chapter... I'm still determining whether or not to make Hitori a chunin when Tsunade comes in. I know she didn't do a whole lot in this chapter but if she didn't get caught by Gaara Naruto wouldn't have fought him and Gaara would still be a devil-child so... Yeah, Hitori still doesn't like the third very much but she's learning. Anyway, please review :)**


	12. Akatsuki and Tsunade

**A/N: Hooray for quick updates! I'd like to dedicate this chapter to xXCobaltFlameXx because it's her birthday today! For those of you who don't know she writes a fanfiction similar to mine so you should check her out!**

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After the invasion much of the village went to work on rebuilding Konoha. I, however, wasn't going to waste any free time. With Kakashi still favoriting Sasuke I found myself asking Kurenai for help. She agreed, but she was back to training Kiba and Hinata as well as Shino so we didn't have as much one-on-one time. She also had a tendency to disappear with Asuma, which Kiba often commented on.

"Those two obviously have something going on."

"K-kiba. You shouldn't s-say things like that." Hinata interjected quietly.

"Come on Hinata, even you can't deny it."

"W-we shouldn't p-pry."

"What about you Hitori? What do you think?"

I was about to shrug off Kiba's question until I got an idea. My lips curved into a smirk, "Do you wanna find out?"

Kiba raised an eyebrow, "what do you mean?"

"We could follow them."

"Th-that's horrible!" Hinata told us in as much of a shout as I've ever heard her.

"What? It's not like we're breaking into their houses. Besides, think of it as training. If we can follow them without them knowing it means we've gotten that much better."

"Hitori raises a valid point." Shino agreed

"Could be fun!" Kiba gave a toothy grin.

Hinata looked between the three of us and resigned to listen to us.

"Okay, here's how we'll do it." I began to explain my plan. "We'll refer to Asuma and Kurenai as the targets from here on out. Shino will place a bug on each of us, they're fast and virtually unnoticeable, which is why they will be our first line of communication. Hinata, you'll be our eyes away from the targets. Kiba, you and Akamaru will monitor the targets chakra. You should be able to smell if they suspect anything right?" He nodded, "Finally, I'll be the one who's in charge. I'll be closest to the targets so I can act immediately. Anything important goes through me and I call the shots."

"Why do we need a leader?" Kiba complained.

"Because without a leader people will act on their own independent to what the others are thinking. It can put the mission in jeopardy."

"Why do you get to be the leader?" He shot back.

"Because I came up with the plan." I was hoping they didn't catch the unspoken 'and I don't have your skills'.

"Fine." He conceded.

"Alright, Hinata, tell us where the targets are. Shino, plant the bugs."

"Already done." Shino replied.

"They're about two kilometers that way." Hinata replied after activating her byakkugan.

"Right, mission: Start!"

Hinata stayed where she was while the rest of us fanned out. I discovered Shino had planted multiple bugs on us, which was probably good so that we always had one on us. We followed Kurenai and Asuma to a Dango and tea shop where Kakashi was waiting for Sasuke. I inwardly 'tsked' at his blatant favoritism when I saw Kurenai blush. I sent a bug to each of my teammates to note the reaction.

The 'targets' took on a more serious look and left quickly when Kakashi nodded toward them. I quickly followed them to where they stopped two people in black cloaks with red clouds. I could tell by the stern looks on their faces that this was no longer just a date so I paid close attention to the words. As soon as the words, "Itachi Uchiha." Crossed Asuma's mouth I sent Kiba (he was the fastest) to tell a jounin. I don't know who he left to find or even if he followed my orders… I just assumed he did.

The guy beside Itachi took his hat off and I was surprised by his blue skin. After a few more words were exchanged the blue guy, Kisame, swung his gigantic sword and fight ensued. Kurenai used a gen-jutsu that I easily recognized because she had been teaching it to me. However it soon became evident that Itachi had reflected the genjutsu.

The moment I saw the kunai out of Itachi's sleeve I sent bugs back to my team changing the mission parameters. It was no longer about finding what Kurenai and Asuma were up to. I jumped in front of Kurenai with my own Kunai to stop Itachi's. Kurenai and Asuma's eyes widened, "Hitori!" They both shouted at the same time and Kurenai quickly pushed me out of the way right after I stopped Itachi's blade.

It wasn't it time to stop me from seeing his eyes, "sharingan?" I already knew that Sasuke was an orphan and that Itachi was somehow related to him after Asuma said his last name, but I didn't understand how he was related to Sasuke or why we were fighting against him. Kurenai went up against Itachi again but it didn't take him long to push her into the water.

I was staring at him in disbelief when Kakashi showed up. "This is the end of the line." Kakashi told him before looking at me, "Hitori, get out of here. Find Gai."

I hardened my gaze, "Kiba's already doing that." I glared at Itachi and Kisame in turn, "You hear that! People already know you're here."

"Hitori!" Kakashi insisted, "You can't fight these guys."

While he was talking to me and holding a kunai to Itachi's throat he had a clone help Asuma. "Just tell me who they are! I know who Kisame is, Asuma said that earlier, but…" I paused looking at Itachi before pointing to him, "How can he have the sharingan. I thought Sasuke was the last of the Uchihas!"

"Itachi Uchiha, he massacred the entire Uchiha family when he was only thirteen. He only let Sasuke live, before he fled the village making him an S-class missing-nin. Now get out of here! And don't tell Sasuke!"

I froze, he was barely older than me at the time. I was scared so I ran as fast as I could. I needed to get away and tell stronger ninjas. Even the hated hokage crossed my mind before I remembered that he was dead. I passed Gai on my way to the village but I didn't stop to greet him. Before long I was in the village panting trying to think of what I should do next. Finally I decided that I should tell Sasuke, even if Kakashi didn't want me to. Before I could get there Kakashi walked up to me, "You were going to tell Sasuke weren't you."

Even though he only had one eye showing I could tell he was angry, "Why not!? Sasuke deserves to know!"

"Know what?" Sasuke walked towards us with his hands in his pockets.

I opened my mouth to speak but Kakashi spoke first, "That Hitori is going to be joining some of our practice sessions. I wanted it to be a surprise but she just couldn't hold it in." I glared at Kakashi but he just turned to me and gave me his one-eyed smile, "We'll talk more about what you'll be learning later."

True to his cover story Kakashi did make me train with him. After explaining exactly why I couldn't tell Sasuke of course. "Alright," Kakashi said to me after we climbed up a mountain with one hand, "Sasuke and I have been working with the sharingan, but you obviously can't do that. Instead, I want to teach you some taijutsu that Sasuke and I are practicing." Most of my training with Kakashi and Sasuke became sparring with the two of them to bring my speed and strength up.

When Kakashi was finally satisfied that I wouldn't say anything to Sasuke and that Sasuke wouldn't suspect anything I went back training with Kurenai's team. It was fun to train with them again but I could never quite win against any of them. Hinata had her gentle-fist which would continuously beat my strange taijutsu-genjutsu fighting style. Shino had his bugs and it was simply too hard to get close to him without having my chakra eaten up by his bugs. While Kiba had Akamaru who could get around to my other side.

Before long Naruto arrived back in the village broadcasting that he learned a new jutsu. He also told me that the new hokage could help Lee whom I visited in the hospital during some of my free time. After telling me she was Lady Tsunade I believed him immediately. I read entire books that told about how many discoveries she made in the medical field, and that she had practically created the field medic position.

When she looked over Lee I stood in the room and was shocked when she told Lee he should quit being a ninja. He didn't take well to the news and I had to resist going to comfort him, it would only make it worse. A 50-50 chance of surviving or never be a ninja again. There was no way Lee would be able to live as a civilian, but at the same I knew that death looming over him would make the decision hard. He needed to figure it out for himself.

To get my mind off of Lee's predicament I went over to Shino's house and asked him to spar with me. He could tell I was distracted, but it took me a while to catch on to him going easy on me.

We must have been there for hours trading blows until we finally had to head back into the village for Tsunade's coronation. Tsunade gave a short speech yet it still demanded everyone's respect. She gave off the feeling that you could trust her and I did. Which is why the very next day I marched into her office. "I'd like to be your apprentice."

"Hitori Anaka, I'm told that you have a fine mind and a strong will but…" She gave me a hard gaze, "It won't be easy."

I smirked, "I never wanted it to be."

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**A/N: So yeah, Sasuke doesn't know about the whole Itachi coming into the village because Hitori is meddlesome. Also, Kakashi didn't get hurt because Gai got there faster so Itachi and Kisame would have gotten out of there sooner. Also, in the anime Sakura didn't ask to be trained by Tsunade until after Sasuke left, but Hitori has a stronger drive than her. Hope you liked the chapter, and I'm already working on the next one. Please review those really make my day :D  
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	13. The Land of Tea

**A/N: Hey guys, I'll admit this was kind of a rush job, partially because I've been sick and partially because I can't wait to get started on the next chapter. I'm not really big on the Land of Tea anyway, so... I hope you guys enjoy it though.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

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I had barely been training under Lady Tsunade for few days before we got a mission. I stood beside Naruto and Sasuke.

"Okay, let's do it! Whatever the mission is I'm psyched and ready to go!" Naruto shouted with excitement. Sasuke snickered. Naruto glowered at him for a bit before looking around, "Some teacher Kakashi is, he's always late."

"Kakashi won't be here at all." Lady Tsunade said as she walked.

"Grandma Tsunade, what's up?" Naruto asked.

"Stop calling me that." She said quietly as she sat down then spoke louder once she looked up at us. "This mission is a B-rank escort… someone important. Of course it could develop into an A-rank mission if you run into trouble.

"Important huh? Who is it?" I asked with growing curiosity.

"I don't know."

"Hold on!" Naruto interjected. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"Every four years our neighbor, the Land of Tea, holds a dedication ceremony at the Great Todoroki shrine, and each time we are hired to escort a runner that will participate in the race at the ceremonies. This year the messengers were attacked before they could get here."

"Who attacked them?"

"Don't worry about that now, when you meet boss Jiroucho he'll fill you in on everything."

"So guys how's your training been going?" I asked once we were on our way. "Or I guess I should only ask Naruto because I saw Sasuke's first hand."

"Mines been going great – believe it!" Naruto shouted with enthusiasm. "Wait. You saw Sasuke's? Has Kakashi sensei been training you too?"

"Yeah, a little."

"Aw man! It's only me he won't teach!" He complained loudly.

"Stop acting like such a loser, Naruto." Sasuke scolded lightly.

"You think you're so cool! I bet my super cool technique could beat yours!"

"Whatever." Sasuke replied.

"Psh, I could take you both down with a single touch!" I boasted.

We continued arguing about who was the strongest until Naruto insisted we stop at a tea shop. We all ordered something fairly simple and Naruto got started on a new topic.

"I hope we get some fighting in!"

I grinned, "That would be awesome. Lady Tsunade has been giving me all sorts of training for –" I was cut off by another kid walking by.

"Just sitting around in the shade sucking down sweet bean soup, the ninja's life is pretty cushy."

"What'd you say!?" Naruto demanded.

"You must not get much action in the leaf village, judging by how out of shape you look."

I lunged out of my seat and got into his face, "I could snap you like a twig." I warned with a confident smirk.

He looked taken aback but quickly composed himself, "If there's one thing I can't stand it's a ninja. You better go back to where you came from or there'll be trouble." The stranger warned.

Naruto didn't want to let it go, "Oh yeah! Why wait!?"

"Leave him be Naruto, for all his big talk he's too much of a coward to do anything." I gave the stranger a challenging look as I said this, but he only glared at me. What I said was able to calm Naruto enough to sit down and by the time our food came out the boy was gone.

It was when the check, or should I say check_s_ came that we got really annoyed. He saddled us with his bill so the three of us decided to go after him and teach him a lesson. The boy was fast but clumsy; we caught him as he tripped over a root and fell over a cliff.

"Serves you right!" Naruto shouted from a tree branch across from me.

"You've got a lot of nerve." Sasuke called standing next to me. "Did you think you'd get away with it?"

The boy fell to the ground crying, "I'm sorry!" I raised an eyebrow at Sasuke while he continued talking, "I couldn't pay the bill! All my money had been stolen. And then you guys came… I shouldn't have done it, but I didn't know what else to do."

I jumped down with Sasuke and Naruto. Naruto stepped toward him, "Why didn't you just say that in the first place?" before the boy had a chance to answer something fell from the tree and hit Naruto in the head before falling to the ground. "What's this thing?"

As Naruto bent down to pick it up the boy snatched it, "Hands off!"

"For someone who was just groveling and apologizing you're being really demanding now." I growled.

He jumped up from his spot and away from us holding out the object, "This belongs to me!" He put it in his cloak and took what looked like leg warmers off his leg. He held them up and it reminded me of something, but I couldn't think of what. "On your mark, get set, GO!"

He dropped what he was holding and I cursed when I realized it reminded me of when Lee took of his weights. We tried to chase him down but he was much faster without the weights and we didn't have the time to chase him down when we had a mission to complete.

We arrived at the Land of Tea without another incident and went immediately to greet boss Jiroucho. Naruto greeted him strangely having apparently met Jiroucho before.

"Now that we're done with the greetings how about we get right down to it?" Sasuke said making the atmosphere much more serious. "The fifth hokage told us you explain what we have to after we arrived."

"Alright then." Jiroucho cleared his throat and explained the dedication ceremony and the tensions between the Wasabi and the Wagarashi. He bowed and asked us to still take the job despite the dangers he just informed us of.

"Not to worry I'm on the job!" Naruto assured.

"Who are we supposed to escort anyway?" Sasuke asked.

Jiroucho clapped his hands twice and the door beside us opened to reveal the boy from earlier, "Yes boss, you wanted me?" He said with a bowed head.

Of course our reactions were a resounding, "Huh!?"

"So you already know each other?" Jiroucho smiled as he was obviously misreading the atmosphere, "that makes everything easier."

Once we were properly introduced, the boy's name was Idate, we all went to town to shop around a little. We ended up splitting up, Naruto with Idate and Sasuke with me. "This is gonna be an interesting mission. That kid is going to be terrified of me when we're done." I said with a malicious grin.

"Don't cause trouble during the mission." Sasuke scolded me.

"Yeah, yeah I know." As I spoke we witnessed somebody get thrown out of their own shop by people who were apparently Wagarashi family members. I reluctantly let Sasuke take care of them despite the fact that I was itching to get into a fight.

That night the race began and when they called Idate's full name: "Idate Morino." I looked at Sasuke. He nodded to me in recognition, but neither one of us could pinpoint where we recognized the name. Once the race actually started Idate immediately ran the wrong direction. "You've gotta be kidding!" I complained but Idate didn't slow down while we did our best to catch him.

When Naruto finally did catch up to him Idate didn't want to explain himself and Naruto didn't even notice he was in a genjutsu. I was surprised when Idate was able to release the genjutsu around him, but he wasn't good enough to realize that there was another genjutsu on top of the one he was in, and he ran right of a cliff. We warned Naruto in time to tie him to a rope and lower him down to catch Idate. Naruto and Idate began arguing again and in the struggle Naruto lost all of his gear. I was about ready to whack them both in the head. Idate finally explained his plan to us and we were on a way to another port within minutes.

When we arrived at the port we were able to see another side of Idate as he talked to an old man he was borrowing a boat from. Naruto didn't acknowledge it but Idate was showing a very caring, and responsible, side.

When we were finally on the boat and I had my line secured I decided to do something I had been meaning to do for a while. I walked over to Naruto, "Not much of ninja are you? Idate noticed the genjutsu before you."

He glared at me then made himself laugh, "Get real, that blockhead could never be a ninja!"

I smirked, "Said the guy who was bottom of the graduating class."

"Yeah, but c'mon, I did make it to the final round of the chunin exams!"

"You didn't really make it to the final round of the chunin exams did you?" Idate finally turned around to pay attention to our loud conversation.

Naruto turned to him, "Yeah that's right! And if I hadn't been interrupted in the middle of it I could of won the tournament and become a chunin!"

I opened my mouth to refute Naruto's statement but Idate spoke first, "Yeah well, whoever your proctor was must've been a real pushover. Sounds like the chunin exams has lowered its standards some!" Idate covered his mouth as he realized what he let slip and I grinned.

"I remember now, Idate Morino." Sasuke said out loud.

"Yeah" I agreed, "same name as the proctor from the first exam: Ibiki Morino."

"What'd you say!?" Idate began walking toward me, "My brother… He's alive?"

"Well of course he's alive!" Naruto confirmed, "Why wouldn't he be?" I opened my mouth to tell Naruto he was an idiot, but he wasn't done speaking. "He threw such a curveball at me the tenth question in."

"Seriously?" Idate was still shocked, "He's really alive then?"

We didn't have a chance to confirm it again because a senbon needle came flying through the air and cut Idate's cheek. "It's an ambush." Sasuke stated the obvious.

"Idate, get down!" I shouted as arrows came flying next.

"Naruto and I will fend off these idiots, Hitori, you keep an eye on Idate." Sasuke ordered.

I held back my refusal at staying in the background, again, because I was the only medical ninja and Lady Tsunade's first lesson for medical-nins was to not die. On Sasuke's order Naruto was about to start cutting the ropes across the ships until he remembered that he dropped all of his equipment earlier. He insisted on Idate giving him his knife but he adamantly refused. "Just give it to me will ya?" He shouted.

"Idiot!" I pulled out my kunai and shoved it in his hand, "That isn't the only knife around."

Naruto cut the ropes easily but it wasn't the end of the familiar ninjas. Using the same trick they had during the chunin exams they had clones materializing in front of us. Sasuke immediately activated his sharingan and shouted to us, "Careful, one of them isn't a clone!"

I pushed Idate to the edge of the boat where I could block him from the rest of the boat, "Don't move."

"No way! Why would I want help from a bunch of ninjas!" It wasn't really a question.

"Look around pal," Naruto shouted at him, "Beggars can't be choosers."

"Naruto! Behind you!" Sasuke warned as the real one attacked him. Luckily Naruto had already used a shadow clone jutsu and was after his attacker as soon as he realized that the one he attacked was a fake.

As Sasuke and Naruto fought the men on board that were now water clones it took every ounce of self-control I had not to charge in with them. I hated standing on the side-lines but it seemed to be a growing habit with me. While I was staring intensely I felt liquid on my cheek. My first reaction was that it was raining but it took me no more than a second to realize it was oil. I looked up to see Sasuke using a tiger-seal handsign and shouted out for him to stop.

My stopping him in time was in vain because a flaming arrow came from the other boat. As our boat went up in flame we realized our only option was to jump in the water. Unfortunately Idate still didn't trust us and refused to get in the water. It wasn't until I took a kunai to the shoulder that we convinced him to dive into the water. The three of us followed after him but even underwater he was faster than us. I was even slower with my injured shoulder and I didn't have a chance to heal it before we got in the water.

Before we could even make it to shore the rain ninjas from earlier dragged us all underwater and held us. I hate to admit it, but without Naruto we might not have been able to get out of there. The whirlpool Naruto created lead us straight to the surface and from there we got to the shore easily. My shoulder still hurt, but it still took too much concentration for me to move and use healing chakra at the same time so I bore with it while we searched for Idate.

It was raining where we found Idate lying on the ground in front of a ninja with green hair. I went immediately to Idate's side and examined his leg. I almost pulled out the antidote Tsunade gave me before we left but decided against it until Naruto and Sasuke took care of the enemy.

A gust of air distracted me from examining Idate as it shoved me against the ground. The strange ninja pulled out senbon and I shouted, "Don't let them hit you!" But I wasn't fast enough. I quickly covered Idate so he wouldn't be injured again. To my disappointment the poison was fast acting and the enemy ninja was gone before we could lift ourselves up.

As we sluggishly got up from the ground I did pull out the antidote in my pouch and had everyone take it. The next thing we did was take Idate to a cave and start a fire. I set to work on healing both his leg and my shoulder. It wasn't a perfect heal, with me just starting my training and all, but it was better than a bandage. Then we waited patiently for Idate to wake up.

"Where is he? What happened to Aoi?" Idate asked as he came to.

"He's gone." Sasuke answered from the fire. "So you're telling me that's that character's name? Aoi?"

"He was… a sensei I knew back in my leaf village days." At our bewildered looks Idate explained what happened with him in the leaf village and what Aoi did. He recounted the tale of Aoi using him to get in good with the rain village. "Nothing I do goes right." Idate had a pained expression on his face. "I've never been of any use to anyone but even so, Boss Jiroucho… Even though he knew I was no good he still trusted me." Tears streamed down Idate's face as he spoke. "I've never been of any use to anyone. I'd be better off dead!"

"Stop it!" We all turned to look at Naruto. "You idiot you just said it yourself, you've still got one person who believes in you, right!"

I stared dumbfaced as Naruto brought up Idate's spirit. Soon enough we were on the road again. I was relieved that my inexperienced healing job was enough to allow Idate to run again, albeit not as fast, but nonetheless he ran and we followed after closely. To be truthful we lost Idate before he reached Todoroki shrine because he simply had more stamina than us. As a result we were late to save Idate from Aoi, just barely making it in time.

As soon as Sasuke and I arrived we stopped Aoi from cutting Idate in half with his strange lightning sword. Sasuke rushed in first using his Chidori then kunai but it was useless. "I guess the stories are true." Aoi taunted. "I always heard the last Uchiha was a hopeless loser unworthy of his family name."

I gritted my teeth wishing I could help but if I couldn't touch him there was nothing I could do except wait, "Sasuke get up and beat this guy!" I shouted.

"Run Hitori!" I turned to Idate, "This guy is too strong, he'll kill us all!"

"As if!" I shot back, "We said we'd protect you, right?" I grinned at him, "Have a little faith."

Aoi laughed. But stopped when he saw Sasuke standing up, "Take it back." Sasuke ordered, but I don't think Aoi understood at first. "Take back what you said!"

"What are you talking about?" Aoi sneered.

"I'm warning you, don't mess with me!" Sasuke created another chidori and rushed forward and connected with Aoi blade again. But he still lost and was thrown on the barely hanging bridge. I wasn't sure how badly hurt Sasuke was or even if I could help but I rushed to him anyway. It was a good thing to because Aoi ended up cutting the bridge and Sasuke would have fallen to a watery death if I wasn't there to stop our fall.

We ended up on a small cliff where I did my best to see to his wounds. It bothered me that I could no longer see or hear the fight. I studied the cliff warily. _It can't be that much harder than tree walking, right?_ I was wrong. Or at least I didn't have the chakra to carry both Sasuke and walk myself up at the same time. I smirked when I saw Idate falling to his doom with nothing to stop him. Next Naruto and Idate peered down to check on us so I shouted up, "What are you doing looking at us! ? Get to the finish line and complete this damn mission!"

Just as Naruto left Sasuke began to wake up and we found our way across the water and made it to the finish line. We missed Idate's big win but we were there to congratulate him as he was declared winner.

A boat came in to take us back to the village and I could tell that even if he didn't want to admit it Ibiki only came to see his little brother. Why else would the head of interrogation come to pick up the injured? It annoyed me that I hadn't been able to heal Sasuke well enough and they even _had _to send a boat. I definitely needed a lot more training.

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**A/N: Yup, kind of a boring end, but what can you do. Also, I have a _REALLY _big twist in mind for Sasuke's defecting, but I'm curious to see your predictions for what that might be. I doubt any of you will get it right, but it could be interesting to see how close you get :) Please review they make my day.**


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